The Traditional Ballad Index Version 3.3

Copyright © 2014 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

See Anti-Confederation Song (File: FJ028)

DESCRIPTION: In Calumet, Michigan, striking copper miners and their children are having a Christmas celebration; strike-breakers outside bar the doors then raise a false fire alarm. In the ensuing stampede, seventy-three children are crushed or suffocated
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (recording by author)
KEYWORDS: lie strike death labor-movement mining disaster children
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenway-AFP, pp. 157-158, "1913 Massacre"
Silber-FSWB, p. 306, "The 1913 Massacre" (1 text)
DT, MASS1913*
RECORDINGS:
Woody Guthrie, "1913 Massacre" (Asch 360, 1945; on Struggle 1, Struggle2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing)" (tune)
NOTES: In the late 19th/early 20th century, the rapid expansion of the electrical industry created great demand for copper, for which the chief source was the mines in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Bitter strikes resulted as the miners, under the leadership of the Western Federation of Miners, demanded decent pay and safer working conditions.
Guthrie's description of the events of 1913 is dead-on accurate, according to the residents of Calumet; Italian Hall, where the disaster occurred, was still standing in the early 1980s, but has since been torn down. - PJS
File: FSWB306A

DESCRIPTION: Coal miner tells of hard times in the Depression. Miners go to work hungry, ragged and shoeless and are cheated of their pay. The Supreme Court rules the National Recovery Act unconstitutional. The singer urges listeners to join the U.M.W.
AUTHOR: Credited to Ed Sturgill
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (recording, New Lost City Ramblers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a coal miner, tells of hard times in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Miners go to work hungry, ragged and shoeless; when they go to the office for scrip, they're told they're behind and owe the company as the scale boss cheats them of their pay. The National Recovery Act offers hope, but the Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional. Roosevelt declares a bank holiday; John L. Lewis wins the miners' battle; the singer urges listeners to join the U.M.W., saying the Depression is now gone
KEYWORDS: strike mining work hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "'31 Depression Blues" (on NLCR15, NLCRCD2)
Ed Sturgill, "'31 Depression Blues" (Big Pine 677M-7157, n.d.)
Three Stripped Gears, "1931 Depression Blues" (OKeh 45553, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bright Sunny South" (tune)
cf. "Sixteen Tons" (lyrics)
NOTES: Well, we have a conundrum here. I'd be prepared to suggest that the Sturgill song is based on the Three Stripped Gears' recording, but not having heard the latter, I refrain for now. If this turns out to be the case, I suppose it should get its own listing.
Sturgill's last verse incorporates lines from Merle Travis's "Sixteen Tons." - PJS
File: Rc31DB

See Nine Hundred Miles (File: LxU073)

See A-Begging I Will Go (File: K217)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A shepherdess meets a young man and asks if he has seen her sheep. First he says no. Then he says he has and has turned them back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sheep youth shepherd sex
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 1, "A Chaipin-ar-leathuaic A'bhfeacais Na Caoire" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "A Chaipin-ar-leathuaic" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin-Cronin. "A double entendre may be intended." The chorus is mouth music. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC001

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. For herding the goats from the rock I would prefer the kilt. If I could have my choice I would prefer the kilt.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage clothes nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-Maritime, p. 177, "Flushing the Goats" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The translation is from the Celtic Lyrics Corner site. - BS
File: CrMa177

See Pretty Saro (File: R744)

DESCRIPTION: "A diller, a dollar, A (ten o'clock) scholar, What makes you come so soon? You us'd to come at ten o'clock, and now you come at noon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS:
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 465, "A diller, a dollar" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #81, p. 82, "(A diller, a dollar)"
NOTES: I know of absolutely no traditional collections of this item, and I have no idea what it means. But reading it in Baring-Gould, I remember the first two lines from somewhere, with a fragment of a tune (plus, according to Cyn Collins, West Bank Boogie, Triangle Park, 2006, there was in the Sixties and Seventies a folk music bar/club at the University of Minnesota called the "Ten O'Clock Scholar"), so I am very tentatively including the piece in the Index.
Neither the Baring-Goulds nor the Opies have any idea what this song is about. I will make a very tentative conjecture.
In the Middle Ages, "scholar" effectively meant "cleric," and clerics were expected to rise early to perform rituals at the canonical hours. So a good scholar should have been at service at (in modern terms) 6:00 and 9:00 a.m. A scholar who does not begin to work until 10:00 a.m. -- or, worse, noon -- is a poor scholar indeed. This would fit with the Opies' note that a diller is Yorkshire dialect for schoolboy who is backward in learning.
Of course, this suggestion probably requires that the piece go back before the Reformation, making it two and a half centuries old, at least, by the time it was printed in Gammer Gurton's Garland. Thus my suggestion is *very* tentative. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BGMG081

DESCRIPTION: Alphabet song, beginning "A is/stands for apple pie, B baked/bit it" and perhaps ending "And don't you wish you had a piece of apple pie?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1671 (Some Observations upon the Answer to an Enquiry into the Grounds & Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 874, "A Is for Apple Pie" (3 texts plus an excerpt, but the "D" text is "The Average Boy")
Opie-Oxford2 1, "A was an apple-pie" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #611, pp. 240-241, "(A was an apple-pie)"
Dolby, pp. 17-18, "A Was an Apple Pie" (1 text)
Roud #7539
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
NOTES: The first six lines of this piece appear in John Eachard's 1671 pamphlet "Some Observations upon the Answer to an Enquiry into the Grounds & Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy."
It first appears as an educational tool in Mary Cooper's 1743 spelling book, "The Child's New Play-thing," and was common in nineteenth century texts (often under the title, "The Tragical Death of an Apple Pie" or similar). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: R874

See The Average Boy (File: R874A)

DESCRIPTION: French: The singer wanders by a clear fountain. He bathes, and hears a bird's song in the trees. He tells the nightingale that it has no cares. He, on the other hand, lost his love because he refused to give her the roses he had picked
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (apparently referred to in 1608)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) France
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 134-135, "A La Claire Fontaine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 55, "A La Claire Fontaine" (1 English and 1 French text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 333, "A La Claire Fontaine (By Yonder Flowing Fountain)" (1 French text with English translation by Arthur Kevess)
Kennedy 97, "Au Bord d'une Fontaine ['Twas There Beside a Fountain]" (1 text + English translation, 1 tune)
DT, ALACLAIR*
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 62-63, "A La Claire Fontaine" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
Grace Lee Nute, _The Voyageur_, Appleton, 1931 (reprinted 1987 Minnesota Historical Society), pp. 105-107, "A La Claire Fontaine" (1 text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES: This song has been called "The unofficial anthem of French Canada."
The correct title of this song is "À La Claire Fontaine." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: FJ134

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A piper stops at a pub for a drink. Someone steals his pipes. "He grieves for his loss and curses the thief"
AUTHOR: Pead Bui O Loingsigh (c. 1830) (source: OCroinin-Cronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage theft drink music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 3, "A Pheaid Bhui Na Gcarad" (1 text)
NOTES: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin-Cronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC003

DESCRIPTION: "(Ah/Hey) Robin, (jolly/gentle) Robin, Tell me how thy (lady/leman) doth And thou shalt know of mine." "My lady is unkinde, perdie, Alack why is she so?" One singer says his lady is constant; the other says women change like the wind
AUTHOR: Sir Thomas Wyatt?
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy) (quoted by Shakespeare in "Twelfth Night")
KEYWORDS: love nonballad betrayal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Percy/Wheatley I, pp. 185-187, "A Robyn Jolly Robyn" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 84-87 (1 text, 1 tune with harmonization)
DT, HEYROBIN*
ST Perc1185 (Full)
NOTES: Often (though not universally) credited to Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542), and obviously well-known by the time Shakespeare wrote "Twelfth Night" (circa 1600); it is quoted by the Clown in IV.ii.71f. The music is credited to Williams Cornysh(e) (died c. 1523). The Cornysh(e) music first appears in British Library MS. Add. 31922.
It's not likely that this is a traditional song, but there are strong variations in the words (and Shakespeare's version does not look original); I include it because it was recorded on the "New Golden Ring," and people might think it traditional.
Wyatt had an incredibly complex career during the reign of Henry VIII (among other things, he was involved with Anne Boleyn before Henry noticed her), and is credited, among other things, with introducing the sonnet to England. - RBW
File: Perc1185

See A Robin, Jolly Robin (File: Perc1185)

DESCRIPTION: French: Three ships are at anchor at St. Malo. Three women come to buy grain. They ask the merchant what his prices are. He asks for more than they can pay. They say so; he says he will give the grain away if he can't sell it that day. The women approve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946
KEYWORDS: bargaining commerce foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 16-17, "A Saint-Malo, Beau Port de Mer (At Saint Malo Beside the Sea)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 14-15 "A St. Malo, beau port de mer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 70-71, "A Saint-Malo, Beau Port de Mer (At St. Malo Beside teh Sea)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES: Fowke report that St. Malo was the home port of Jacques Cartier, the French explorer who in 1534 named the St. Lawrence river. For this reason, the very name of the port evokes Quebec's history and patriotism.
The town itself is in Brittany, on the coast not far from the border with Normandy, and was often used as a privateering base for raids on Britain and the like.
The correct title of the song is "À Saint-Malo, Beau Port de Mer." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: FJ016

See A Saint-Malo, Beau Port de Mer (At Saint Malo Beside the Sea) (File: FJ016)

DESCRIPTION: The singer to his/her love: You'll soon leave for a strange land "rich in its treasures"; "the lights of the city may blind you ... turn away from the throng and the bliss ... come back soon To the love that is always burning" and Erin's shore.
AUTHOR: Brian O'Higgins (Brian na Banban) (1882-1949) (source: notes to IRClare01)
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: love emigration parting Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #3076
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "A Stor Mo Chroi" (on IRClare01)
NOTES: Brian O'Higgins is also sometimes credited with "Moses Ritoora-li-ay." Quite a stretch from here to there. - RBW
File: RcAStMC

See A Is for Apple Pie (File: R874)

See A Is for Apple Pie (File: R874)

DESCRIPTION: "A was an archer who shot at a frog, B was a butcher and had a great dog, C was a Captain, all covered with lace, D was a drunkard, and had a red face," and so on to the end of the alphabet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell); Opie-Oxford2 reports that it occurs first in A Little Book for Little Children, published in the reign of Queen Anne (died 1714)
KEYWORDS:
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 2, "A was an archer, who shot at a frog" (2 texts)
Dolby, pp. 19-20, "A Was an Archer" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #612, p. 242, "(A Was an Archer)"
Roud #20563
NOTES: The notes in the Baring-Goulds suggest that the reference to "King William" under "K" is a reference to William the Conqueror. This, however, ignores the fact that the poem was first published in the reign of Queen Anne. The reference is, I strongly suspect, to William III, Anne's brother-in-law, who had died in 1702. After all, William the Conqueror had died in 1087 and his son William II Rufus in 1100; the poem can hardly be that old, and why refer all the way back to William the Conqueror when there were so many other kings to refer to? - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: OO2002

See The Buttermilk Boy (File: HHH057a)

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the trades in England, The begging is the best, For when the beggar's tired, he can lay him down and rest...." The beggar describes the various pleasures of his profession, and declares that he will continue begging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1684 (Playford's Choyce Ayres and Loyal Songs)
KEYWORDS: begging nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,Lond,south),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 31-32, "The Begging Trade"; Greig #30, p. 1, "The Beggin'" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan3 488, "The Begging" (14 texts, 11 tunes)
Williams-Thames, p. 305, "Of All the Trades in London" (1 fragment) (also Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 653)
Kennedy 217, "A-Begging I Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan, pp. 164-166, "The Jovial Beggar, a-begging we will go" (1 text)
Chappell/Wooldridge II, pp. 42-43, "A Begging We Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bell-Combined, "A Begging We Will Go" (1 text)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 267-270, "A-Begging We Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune, very long and conflate)
Ord, pp. 381-382, "To the Beggin' I Will Go" (1 text)
DT, ABEGGIN*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 265, "The Happy Beggarman"
Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), pp. 287-289, "A Begging I Will Go" as one of the sources of Coughlan 94, "O, a-beggin' I will go, my love."
Roud #286
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "To the Begging I Will Go" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(287), "The Beggar," C. Croshaw (York), c.1817
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let the Back and Sides Go Bare" (theme)
cf. "The Old Settoo" (theme and some lines)
cf. "Beggars and Ballad Singers" (theme : "who would be a king, When beggars live so well?")
SAME TUNE:
Age Renewed by Wedlock/Come All Ye Ancient Women (BBI ZN511)
The Merry Beggars of Lincolns-Inn-Fields/Three beggars met together (BBI ZN2603)
The Papist Prayers/There Is a Holy Father (BBI ZN2427)
The Rambling Roman Catholick/I am a Roman Catholick (BBI ZN1225)
Tradesman's Complaint, "Come hither, brother tradesmen, And hear the news I bring, 'Tis of a Tory minister" (song against the British policies leading to the American Revolution; see Stanley Weintraub, _Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire 1775-1783_, pp. 20-21)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
To the Begging I Will Go
NOTES: Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, pp. 288-289, notes the following verse from Playford's Choyce Ayres and Loyal Songs (1684): "I fear no plots against me, I live in open cell, Then who would be a king, When beggars live so well?" Coughlan continues, "It has been suggested that this verse contains a veiled reference to the tradition that King James V of Scotland (1513-42) was in the habit of consorting with Travellers.... {A} similar story is told of the English King John (1199-1216)...." This may be confused with the report in Child's preface to 279, "The Jolly Beggar": "We are regularly informed by editors that tradition imputes the authorship of both 'The Jolly Beggar' and 'The Gaberlunyie-Man' to James Fifth of Scotland.... The tradition as to James Fifth is, perhaps, not much older than the publication in either case [1724], and has no more plausibility than it has authority." - BS
The basis for the legend may be the fact that he was a fairly lusty liege; according to Stanley B. R. Poole, Royal Mysteries and Pretenders, Barnes & Noble, 1993, p. 36, he was thought to have had as many as nine illegitimate children. But I agree that there is no reason to link the songs to him.
Logan has this from a broadside "Be Valiant Still," with the tune listed as "The old carle to daunton me." Whatever that is; a tune "To Daunton Me" is #182 in the Scots Musical Museum.
The notion of begging songs predates even this quite ancient piece; in A Poetical Rhapsody, published 1602, we find "In Praise of a Beggar's Life" ("Bright shines the sun; play, beggars, play! Here's scraps enough to serve to-day"), credited to "A.W." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: K217

DESCRIPTION: "Behold upon the swelling seas With streaming pennants gay, Our gallant ship invites the waves, While glory leads the way." "And a-cruising we will go." The singer asks the girls to be kind, recalls "Hardy's flag," and hopes for peace with America
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: navy ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 118-119, "A-Cruising We Will Go" (1 text)
Roud #8825
NOTES: Shay gives no information about the origin of this piece, and no tune; I doubt it is traditional, or even a song. It looks to me like some broadside poet's praise of the British navy.
"Hardy" is presumably Thomas Masterson Hardy (1769-1839), Nelson's chief captain, who was made rear admiral in 1825, served as First Sea Lord 1830-1834, and finally reached the rank of vice admiral in 1837. - RBW
File: ShaSS118

DESCRIPTION: The girl rebukes her father for marrying her to a much younger boy. He tells her the lad is growing. She sends him to school in a shirt that shows he's married, for he is a handsome lad. She soon bears his son. He dies young; she sadly buries him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (as "Lady Mary Anne"), based on a text in the Herd manuscript (c. 1776)
KEYWORDS: marriage youth death mourning clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland,England(All)) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Laws O35, "A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing)"
Flanders/Olney, pp. 196-197, "Young But Daily Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBB 156, The Trees So High" (1 text)
Warner 60, "Young but Daily Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 177, "My Bonny Love is Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 677-678, "He's Young but He's Daily Growing" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 29, "Still Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 107-109, "He's Young but He's Daily A-Growing" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 100-101, "He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
SharpAp 72, "Still Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-100E 25, "The Trees They Do Grow High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-Sharp 96, "Still Growing" (1 text, a composite of two versions)
Reeves-Circle 134, "The Trees They Are So High" (2 texts)
BroadwoodCarols, pp. 56-57, "Oh, the Tres are getting high" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 99, "The Trees They Grow So High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney, p. 44, "The Trees they do grow high" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 16-18, "The Trees They Grow So High (The Bonny Boy)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hodgart, p. 147, "Still Growing" (1 text)
Kennedy 216, "Young and Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 40, "The Trees They Do Be High" (1 text, 1 tune)
DBuchan 40, "The Young Laird of Craigstoun" (1 text)
GreigDuncan6 1222, "Still Growing" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Crawfurd2 122, "The Lament of a Young Damsel for Her Marriage to a Young Boy" (1 text)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 45-46, "Craigston's Growing" (1 text)
Ord, p. 112, "My Bonnie Laddie's Lang, Lang o' Growing" (1 text)
MacSeegTrav 23, "Long A-Growing" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Darling-NAS, pp. 132-133, "The Trees They Grow So High" (1 text)
Behan, #18, "Child Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Silber-FSWB, p. 217, "Daily Growing" (1 text)
DT 307, DAILYGRO* LANGGRO*
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, pp. 40-41, "The Trees They Do Grow High" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #374, pp. 510-511 "My bonie laddie's young but he's growin yet" ["Lady Mary Ann"] (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Roud #31
RECORDINGS:
Sean 'Ac Donnca, "The Bonny Boy" (on TradIre01)
Liam Clancy, "Lang A-Growing" (on IRLClancy01)
Charlotte Decker, "He's Young but He's Daily Growing" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Nathan Hatt, "He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing" (on MRHCreighton)
Mary Anne Haynes, "Long A-Growing" (on Voice06)
Lizzie Higgins, "Lady Mary Ann" (on Voice17)
Fred Jordan, "The Bonny Boy" (on Voice03)
Tom Lenihan, "The Trees They Do Be High" (on IRTLenihan01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(156d), "My Bonny Lad is Young, But He's Growing", H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth c.21(19), Harding B 11(4066), "My Bonny Lad is Young, But He's Growing"; Harding B 11(2216), "My Bonny Lads Growing"; Harding B 11(1685), Harding B 15(210b), "My Bonny Lad is Young and Growing"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Days Are Awa That I Hae Seen" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Daily Growing
Lady Mary Ann (a rewrite by Robert Burns)
My Bonnie Laddie's Young (But He's Growing Yet)
Young Craigston
The Young Laird of Craystoun
NOTES: [A. L. Lloyd writes,] "It is sometimes said that the ballad is based on the actual marriage of the juvenile laird of Craigton to a girl several years his senior, the laird dying three years later in 1634. But in fact the ballad may be older; indeed, there is no clear evidence that it is of Scottish origin. Child marriages for the consolidation of family fortunes [or other political reasons - RBW] were not unusual in the Middle Ages and in some parts the custom persisted far into the seventeenth century. The presenting and wearing of coloured ribbons, once common in Britain, still plays a prominent part in betrothal and marriage in Central and Eastern Europe." - PJS
The notes in GlenbuchatBallads, p. 230, detail the story of John Urquhart of Craigston, and seem certain that he inspired the song, but they admit the ballad "recalls relatively little of the story." I'm simply not convinced. - RBW
GreigDuncan6 1222A is the first two verses of Burns's "Lady Mary Ann." The tune there is "Shule Agra"; Burns's tune is "Craigstone's Growin'" which, I assume, is "A-Growing." The GreigDuncan6 citation for the next note refers to the "estate of Crayston [Craigstoun]."
GreigDuncan6 cites North Country Garland 1824 as a source of A.L. Lloyd's note on the 1631/1634 story." - BS
MacColl and Seeger report this song from 1670 in the Guthrie manuscript. We have been unable to verify this, and they are lumpers. - PJS, RBW
Lizzie Higgins's "Lady Mary Anne" on Voice17 is very close to the Robert Burns text (source: "Lady Mary Anne" on Burns Country site). Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 40 is [also] close to "Lady Mary Anne."
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Lady Mary Ann" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
While the usual marriage custom was for older men to marry younger women, there were several very early instances of the reverse in English and Scottish royal history, though I doubt any of them actually inspired this song.
The first that we know of came in 1017. Canute (Cnut), who was King of Denmark by right but had become King of England by conquest, displacing the native dynasty of Ethelred II Unraed ("Ethelred the Unready," though his nickname actually translates as "no-council"), married Emma the widow of Ethelred a year after he assumed the throne (Ashley, p. 486).
Canute was 21 at the time of the marriage; we don't know Emma's age, but her son Edward the Confessor was born around 1004, so Ashley, p. 482, suggests she was born c. 985, making her 31 or 32. O'Brien, p. 14, thinks Edward was born 1005, and notes that Emma bore her last child around 1021, and so conjectures a birth date c. 988, which would make her 29 when Canute married her. Since she married Ethelred probably in 1002 (O'Brien, p. 23), her latest possible birth date is probably 990, making her 27 when she married Canute.
There is no question that Emma was much older than her second husband (though still young enough to bear him a son, Harthecanute, and a daughter, Gunnhild; O'Brien, p. viii). This is hardly similar to the story here, though, as Emma probably married Canute voluntarily, and in any case, her father, Duke Richard I of Normandy, had died in 996 (Ashley, p. 499).
Emma may have had a right to gripe, though, since Canute did not set aside his earlier common law wife Aelgifu when he married Emma. Canute declared Aelgifu his "temporary wife" (Brooke, p. 135) -- but her older son, Harold, succeeded to the throne of England after Canute (Brooke, p. 138). Emma's son Harthecanute became King of England only after Harold died. On the other hand, Canute seems to have come to genuinely respect Emma and given her a place in his councils (O'Brien, p. 119). Which isn't the same as saying he slept with her much, however....
A more suitable parallel to the situation in this song arose after the Norman Conquest. King Henry I had married his daughter Matilda/Maud to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. But she was very young when they married (perhaps twelve), and when the emperor died in 1125, she was still childless (and perhaps 23). The lords in Germany didn't want to send her home, and she doesn't seem to have had a strong desire to return to England either, but Henry -- who now desperately needed an heir -- got her back (Warren; p. 11). Her father Henry I then married her to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, who was ten or twelve years younger than she (Ashley, p. 517).
The match managed to produce several children, but that is all that can be said for it -- Matilda, though described by Warren as "strikingly handsome," seems to have been a fairly prickly person, On p. 12, Warren calls her "haughty and domineering, expecting devotion as her due rather than trying to earn it."
McLynn, p. 7, declares that "the marriage was not a success, largely because Matilda was such a domineering personality; this was the very quality that lost her England when she had [King] Stephen on the ropes in 1141. Headstrong, overbearing, tactless, haughty, arrogant, and abusive, Matilda alienated everyone she came in contact with, even her own kinsmen. The general consensus was that Matilda was an over-masculine woman; her lack of the traditionally feminine qualities appalled contemporaries who thought her a freak of nature.... And since Matilda acted like a virago and indicated to her husband that, as a king's daughter, she had married beneath her, it was not long before he ignored her and consoled himself with a harem of mistresses. Nonetheless, the duty of founding a new dynasty had to be performed, so it was into this loveless union that Henry II was born on 1 March 1133."
Henry II himself was the third, and probably the most famous, instance of the phenomenon in the English royal family of an older wife with a young husband. As McLynn notes in the very next sentence after the above, "Henry II would continue the Angevin pattern of contracting unhappy marriages." More, he once again wedding a much older woman. In 1152, at the age of 18, he married Eleanor Duchess of Acquitaine, who had been divorced from King Louis VII of France (Ashley, p. 518). She was at least ten, and probably 11 or 12, years older than her husband (though she still managed to bear him eight children, and she outlived him by 15 years, dying in 1204 at about the age of 82). Here again, though, her father was dead.
Fourth, King Henry VIII took as his first wife Katherine of Aragon (Ashley, p. 630). They married in 1509, shortly after he came to the throne; he was about to turn 18, she was 23 or 24, and the widow of Henry's older brother Arthur. That marriage was the worst flop of all; Henry by 1514 was giving most of his energy to mistresses (Mattingly, p. 162). This is in some ways a good fit -- Katherine did complain to her father about being kept in poverty after Arthur's death (Mattingly, p. 98). But she had no children by Arthur, and Henry outlived her.
Fifth, Frances Brandon, whose first husband was Henry Grey of Dorset and whose daughter by him was Jane Grey the "Nine Days' Queen," after the execution of her first husband in 1554 married one of her servants, Adrian Stokes (Plowden, facing p. 119). She was born in 1517; he was said to be 16 years younger, meaning that she was in her late thirties (and, based on her portrait, gone to fat) and he in his early twenties when they married. There were apparently no offspring of the marriage; she died in 1559.
It should be noted that in none of these cases was the younger husband the *first* spouse of the older wife. All four queens had been married before (though it is possible that Arthur and Katherine had not consummated their marriage; this at least was the argument that was given to the Pope to make the marriage between Henry and Katherine legal; Williamson, p. 76). Thus in no case was the wife really a spinster. And all four husbands were old enough to consummate the marriage at once (though Geoffrey of Anjou was barely so), and none of the husbands died soon after -- though Emma of Normandy, who died in 1052, outlived Canute by 17 years (and her son Harthecanute by ten); Eleanor of Aquitaine, as noted, outlived Henry II by 15; and Matilda, who died 1167, outlived Geoffrey by 16 years; only Katherine of Aragon, who died in 1533, predeceased her husband.
There was one later case in which the wife had not had a previous husband: Mary Tudor, at 37, married the future Philip II of Spain in 1554 (Ashley, pp. 638-640). Although he was about ten years younger than she was (Prescott, p. 397), he was already a widower (and would end up marrying four times; Smith, p. 163). But although she loved him desperately (quite literally), the feeling was not returned; Prescott, p. 397, says he spent the first year after their marriage in a "ceaseless and apparently convincing simulation of love." After that year of play-acting, he quit trying, although he continued to take advantage of their love. In any case, although Mary at one time convinced herself she was pregnant, she had no children.
Another instance, involving high royalty although not the actual king or queen, came after the Stuart succession. Arabella Stuart (1575-1615), who had been the heir of James VI and I until that king had children, clandestinely (and voluntarily) married William Seymour (1587-1660), who was thirteen years her junior (Macalpine/Hunter, p. 213). James -- who had already repressed one plot made on her behalf, although she was no part of it (Magnuson, p. 409n) -- was concerned by the fact that both she and her husband had English royal blood, and responded by throwing her in the tower in 1611.
He may have had a point, since the marriage seems to have been Somerset's idea; Magnuson, p. 378n., thinks Arabella accepted his proposal because she was middle-aged and running short of prospects. I wonder if it might not have been some sort of psychological side-effect of all the time she spent with her captive cousin, Mary Queen of Scots (Magnuson, pp. 377-278). In any case, she died in the Tower, perhaps of the effects of porphyria (Macalpine/Hunter, pp. 217-218, although given the vagueness of the data, I think her problem might have been as mundane as shingles), in 1615 (Magnusson, pp. 318n., 378n.).
She and her husband had tried to flee together, but where she was slowed by sickness, he was nimble and managed to escape (Macalpine/Hunger, p. 218), remaining in exile until 1616 (OxfordCompanion, p. 878). He survived her by more than forty years and was eventually restored to the Dukedom of Somerset.
If we look to the Scots, Margaret, daughter of Alexander III of Scotland, was 19 when she married 14-year-old Erik II King of Norway (Magnusson, p. 104).
Not one of these marriages seems to have been happy. Canute kept a second wife. Matilda spent most of her time after 1135 in England, while Geoffrey stayed in Normandy. Henry II took mistresses (notably Rosamund Clifford) and in time imprisoned Eleanor. Henry VIII, besides taking mistresses, tried to have his marriage with Katherine annulled (though that was due to her inability to bear a male heir, which most now think was more his problem than hers; Ashley thinks he had syphilis, though genetic disease seems at least as likely; the Tudors had inherited a lot of very bad genes from Catherine of France, the daughter of the mad king Charles VI). Margaret of Scotland died, probably in childbirth, at the age of 22, bearing the future Margaret Maid of Norway (Magnusson, p. 105. For the Maid of Norway, see the notes to "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child 58].) And Philip of Spain abandoned his creaky, unattractive, seemingly infertile wife after only a little more than a year.
I suppose I should add that King Edward IV married a significantly older woman, Elizabeth Woodville, but this hardly counts; she was still fairly young and regarded as quite beautiful, and Edward pursued her entirely voluntarily and -- as it turned out -- at great cost to himself and his family. In any case, she not only married him happily but clearly set out to lure him into marriage.
Instances of a younger man marrying an older woman for her money are even more common among the lower nobility and gentry. These cases are too numerous to list, but we might cite the example of the famous soldier Sir John Fastolf, one of the best of Henry V's lieutenants. Himself relatively poor, in 1409, at the age of about 29, he married Millicent Scrope, age about 41, whose lands were worth five times as much as his (Castor, p. 101). The joke proved to be rather on him, though -- he lived another half century, and became very rich indeed, but produced no legitimate heir.
Finally, we might mention the case of Cleopatra VII of Egypt ("the" Cleopatra) marrying two of her younger brothers in the period around 50 B.C.E. But that was just politics and Egyptian custom -- and the marriages surely were not consummated. - RBW
Bibliography

• Ashley: Mike Ashley, British Kings and Queens, Barnes & Noble, 2000 (originally published as The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens, 1998)
• Brooke: Christopher Brooke, The Saxon and Norman Kings, 1963 (I use the 1975 Fontana paperback edition)
• Castor: Helen Castor, Blood & Roses: The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century, Faber & Faber, 2004
• Macalpine/Hunter: Ida Macalpine and Richard Hunter, George III and the Mad Business, Pantheon, 1969
• Magnusson: Magnus Magnusson, Scotland: The Story of a Nation, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000
• Mattingly: Garrett Mattingly, Catherine of Aragon, 1941 (I use the 1990 Book-of-the-Month club edition)
• McLynn: Frank McLynn, Richard & John: Kings at War, da Capo, 2007
• O'Brien: Harriet O'Brien, Queen Emma and the Vikings, Bloomsbury, 2005
• OxfordCompanion: John Cannon, editor, The Oxford Companion to British History, Oxford, 1997
• Plowden: Alison Plowden, Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen, Sutton, 2003
• Prescott: H. F. M. Prescott, Mary Tudor: The Spanish Tudor, revised edition, 1952 (I use the 2003 Phoenix paperback)
• Smith: Rhea Marsh Smith, Spain, University of Michigan Press, 1965
• Warren: W. L. Warren, Henry II, University of California Press, 1973; I use the 1977 paperback edition)
• Williamson: James A. Williamson, The Tudor Age, 1953, 1957, 1964; I use the slightly revised 1979 Longman paperback edition.

DESCRIPTION: "A-hunting we will go (x2) We'll catch a fox and put it in a box." Possible chorus: "High-ho, the derry-o." Additional verses may hunt other animals, such as fish or bear -- e.g. "We'll catch a bear and cut his hair, And then we'll let him go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Northall)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West), Scotland(Aber)) US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1591, "Oh a Hunting" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Emelyn E Gardner, "Some Play-Party Games in Michigan" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXXIII, No. 128 (Apr 1920 (available online by JSTOR)), #16 p. 102, "Have You Seen the Sha?" (1 text)
Ruth Ann Musick and Vance Randolph, "Children's Rhymes from Missouri" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. LXIII, No. 250 (Oct 1950 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 431, ("A-hunting we will go, a-hunting we will go") (1 text)
G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 386-387, ("A hunting we will go") (2 texts)
Roud #12972
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Noble Duke of York" (tune)
cf. "The Farmer in the Dell" (tune)
NOTES: This is a popular enough children's song that I actually encountered it in my youth, with the "High-ho" chorus and tune related to "The Farmer in the Dell." I don't know if I met it at school or at home; I do note that the Internet reveals many school-related versions, often badly damaged and with utterly sickening lesson plans attached. (I refuse to cite links on the grounds that American education is already too touchy-feely.)
I strongly suspect that the verse about catching a fox and putting it in a box did *not* originally involve letting it go, making me suspect a rewrite. Perhps this is why, although the song seems to be common in modern children's anthologies, there aren't many traditional collections. - RBW
The non-sequitur reply to Gardner's "Have You Seen the Sha?," who "lights his pipe on a starlight night," is the text "A-hunting we will go ... We'll catch a fox ...." Gomme (1.243-244) lists ("O have you seen the Shah") with two other versions of this "A-Hunting We Will Go."
Northall has two versions: one -- "we'll catch a little fish, And put him in a dish" -- from Shropshire, and the other -- "we'll catch a fox ...." -- from Derbyshire. - BS
Katherine Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 528-530, "The Fox and the Pixies" is a folktale which she thinks might be influenced by this. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81591

See Once More A-Lumbering Go AND Bung Yer Eye (File: Wa031)

See Once More A-Lumbering Go (File: Wa031)

See The Nutting Girl (File: K186)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Arabella set her main top-s'l (x3) ... a rollin' down the river." Verses list a full-rigged ship's sails: "The Arabella set her main gans'l/main royal/main skys'l, etc." Second chorus: "Oh, a pumpkin pudden an' a bulgine pie, aboard the Arabella"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship shanty
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 178-179, "A-Rolling Down the River" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbrEd pp. 144-145]
Roud #8343
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "So Early in the Morning" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Arabella
Shenandoah
Dave Crockett
NOTES: Hugill says the tune is similar to a minstrel song "So Early in the Morning." - SL
File: Hug178

DESCRIPTION: In this cautionary tale, a sailor meets an Amsterdam maid, fondles portions of her body progressively, has sex with her, and catches the pox. She leaves him after he has spent all his money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease sailor warning whore
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,NE,So,SW) Australia
REFERENCES (18 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1479, "A-Rovin', A-Rovin'" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 36-38, "A-Roving" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 87-88, "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 49-52, "A-Roving" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hugill, pp. 48-52, 101, "A-Roving" (6 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes; the 5th text is "Go Rowing," a 1916 Norwegian adaptation by Henrik Wergelands taken from Brochmann's "Opsang Fra Seilskibstiden." p.101 is a version of "A Long Time Ago") [AbrEd pp. 46-48]
Sharp-EFC, XXV, pp. 28-29, "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray, pp. 64-67, "A-Rovin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 124-125, "The Maid of Amsterdam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger, pp. 56-58, "A-Roving" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Bone, pp. 99-103, "Amsterdam" (1 censored text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 80-81, "Maid of Amsterdam (A-Roving)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 125-130, "Amsterdam" [1 fragment, 1 tune, censored by the informant)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 96, "A-roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHJohnson, p. 51, "The Amsterdam Maid" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 89, "A-Roving" (1 text)
DT, AROVIN1* AROVIN2*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "A'Rovin" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 80, "A-Roving!" (1 text, 1 tune, probably cleaned up as the girl merely causes the man to spend all his money)
Roud #649
RECORDINGS:
Richard Maitland, "A-Roving" (AFS, 1939; on LC26)
Stanley Slade & chorus: "A'Roving" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "All Under the New Mown Hay"
cf. "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Tickle My Toe" (theme)
cf. "The Girl in Portland Street" (plot, theme)
cf. "Baltimore (Up She Goes)" (theme)
cf. "Ye Wanton Young Women" (theme, chorus lines)
NOTES: This is a partial formula song in that the sailor begins at the knee, moves up to the thigh, and then to the "snatch." See "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" ("I Put My Hand") for extended treatment of this formula. - EC
Some similar lines are found in Thomas Heywood's "The Rape of Lucrece" (c. 1607), and Shay traces this piece back to that time (Masefield also accepts, and may have originated, this identification), but Doerflinger states that they are not the same song.
The version collected by Meredith from Wally Marshall has an unusual ending; when the singer places his hand upon the girl's breast, she breaks wind, seemingly causing him to abandon the venture.
In College Songs (1887), there is a song "Rig-a-jig," with verses "As I was walking down the street, Heigho (x4), A pretty girl I chanced to meet...." "Said I to her, 'What is your trade?' ... Said she to me, 'I'm a weaver's maid.'" I suspect dependence, but the song ends after two verses, so it is not clear how it proceeded. Or, rather, I suspect it IS clear but the song has been cleaned up by excision. - RBW
Roud assigns #7181 to the GreigDuncan7 fragment, which changes the sex of the object, viz., "I'll gang nae mair a rovin' wi' you, young man." The fragment of the chorus gives no idea of the rest of the song so I have chosen to lump this text with the common "A-Rovin'." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: EM064

See A-Rovin' (File: EM064)

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

DESCRIPTION: Pennsylvania German. "A, A, A, d'r Winder der is da, Berbacht un Sommer sin vergange." Counting through the vowels A E I O U, it was that winter is come and summer gone. Frost is settling Children are happy because Christmas is coming
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (collected from Jane Reitz by Thomas R. Brendle and William S. Troxell)
KEYWORDS: nonballad foreignlanguage Jesus
FOUND IN: US(MA) Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Korson-PennLegends, pp. 107-108, "A, A, A, d'r Winder der is da (A, A, A, Winter Is Here)" (1 German text plus non-literal English translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, pp. 30-31, "A, A, A, d;r WInder der is da" (1 German text)
File: MLG030

DESCRIPTION: "Its O, but aw ken well -- A, U, hinny burd, The bonny lass o' Benwell, A, U, A." "She's lang-legg's and mother-like... See, she's raking up the dyke." "The Quayside for sailors... The Castle Garth for tailors...." Additional places round out the song
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 160-161, "A, U, Hinny Burd" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR160 (Partial)
Roud #235
File: StoR160

DESCRIPTION: "Been on the hummer since ninety-four, Last job I had was on the Lake Shore, Lost my job in the A.R.U. And I won't get it back till nineteen-two And I'm still on the hog train flagging my meals Ridin' the brake beams close to the wheels."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: railroading hardtimes unemployment strike labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 20, 1893 - Socialist Eugene Debs (1855-1926) organizes the A.R.U. (American Railway Union)
June 27, 1893 - A severe decline in the stock market leads to the Panic of 1893. The next year will see severe labor troubles as workers try to survive the economic contraction
May 11, 1894 - The Pullman Strike. The Pullman employees have been squeezed by the company to the point where they can no longer survive
June 26, 1894 - Eugene Debs calls the A.R.U. strike to support the Pullman workers. Roughly 60,000 workers go off the job.
July 2, 1894 - Attorney General Olney, who works with railroad interests, convinces President Cleveland to break the Pullman Strike. Cleveland orders Debs to call off the strike on the grounds that it interferes with the U.S. mail. (Pullman cars, however, do not carry mail.)
July 6, 1894 - Troops fire on the railroad strikers in Kensington, IL
July 10, 1894 - Debs is indicted for defying President Cleveland's injunction (on Dec. 14 he will be sentenced to six months in prison)
Aug 3, 1894 - The Pullman strikers give in
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg, pp. 190-191, "A. R. U." (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, p. 57, "A.R.U." (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pullman Strike" (subject)
NOTES: After the A.R.U. strike of 1894, most of the strikers were blacklisted by the railroad companies. With little else to do, they rode the rods or tried to get jobs under false names -- only to be fired if they were discovered. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: San190

DESCRIPTION: "As Jenny sat down wi' her wheel b the fire... She said to herself... "Oh! a'body's like to be married but me." She recalls the companions of her youth, perhaps interested then but no longer. She concludes they are worthless -- but still feels unhappy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scots Magazine, according to Whitelaw-Song)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid rejection loneliness
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 299-300, "A'body's Like to be Married but Me" (1 text)
Greig #18, p. 1, ("As Bessie sat doon wi' her seam by the fire") (1 text)
GreigDuncan7 1374, "A'body's Like to Be Married but Me" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Whitelaw-Song, pp. 253-254, "A'body's Like to be Married" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Songs of Scotland (Glasgow, 1872 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 289, "A'body's Like to be Married but Me" (1 text)
Roud #7160
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Maid's Lament
NOTES: Whitelaw: "We find the original of this in the Scots Magazine for July 1802, where it is signed 'Duncan Gray.'" - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FVS299

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Aaron Burr, what have you done? You've shot great General Hamilton! You hid behind a Canada thistle And shot him with your old hoss-pistol!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: homicide political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 11, 1804 - Duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, resulting in the wounding of the latter; he died the next day
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt, p. 257, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: The duel between Vice President Aaron Burr (1756-1836) and former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton (c. 1756-1804) is the subject of so much folklore that I am not even going to try to cover it. The duel itself arose out of Burr's resentment at Hamilton's (successful) efforts to prevent his election as governor of New York.
Burt claims that this is a "quatrain which was popular for more than half a century," though I can't recall seeing it elsewhere. - RBW
File: Burt257

DESCRIPTION: "It was in eighteen and eighty in the first part of that date... When little Aaron Hart so still he went away." "He seemed to be determined to follow Willie home," but is lost. Singer F. B. Harris and others hunt for him, but he dies in the woods
AUTHOR: F. B. Harris?
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris)
KEYWORDS: death separation children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1880 - Death of Aaron Hart, who was not yet four
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AFS1, pp. 321-322, "Aaron Hart" (1 text)
Roud #4146
NOTES: This is item dG48 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS1321

See Erin's Lovely Home [Laws M6] (File: LM06)

DESCRIPTION: "In Carmel Bay the people say we feed the lazzaroni On caramels and cockle-shells and hunks of Abalone." The virtues of this mollusk are extolled: It cures pain, tastes better than the finest foods, and can be transmitted faster than electricity (?!)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg, p. 333, "Abalone" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 32, #4 (1987), p. 90, "Abalone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10113
NOTES: The anonymous Book of Vulgar Verse credits a version of this to George Sterling. But the book is apparently some five decades newer than Sandburg, and does not list a more detailed source. In support of this claim, K. LaRoe writes, "I had recently read a reference to The Abalone Song, written by the poet George Sterling in the early 1900s while staying in an artist's colony in Carmel California."
There seems to be a strong tendency for singers to rewrite this; I suspect Sandburg's hand in his version, and Sam Hinton confesses to adding four verses to the Sing Out! version. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: San333

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "The Abandoned." First line: "Me abanonastes, jujer, porque soy muy pobre." The singer's girl is leaving him because he is poor. He admits to character faults. He asks "What am I to do if I am the abandoned one?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: love courting poverty drink gambling abandonment Mexico foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(So) Mexico
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg, pp. 295-297, "El Abandonado" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 364-366, "El Abandonado (The Abandoned One") (1 text plus prose translation, 1 tune)
File: San295

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

DESCRIPTION: The heroic Moslem Abdul and the gallant Russian Ivan Skavinsky Skevar chance to meet. It doesn't take them long to begin duelling, which inevitably results in the deaths of both. Their burials and the mourning for them are described
AUTHOR: credited to Percy French
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (copyright under the title "Abdulla Bulbul Ameer")
KEYWORDS: humorous death foreigner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1853-1854 - Crimean War
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sandburg, pp. 344-346, "Abdul, the Bulbul Ameer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely, "Abdul da Bool Bool de Meer" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 341-343, "Ye Ballade of Ivan Petrofsky Skevar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 128-131, "Abdul Abulbul Amir" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Silber-FSWB, p. 21, "Abdul, The Bulbul Amir" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 84, "Abdulla Bulbul Ameer"
DT, ABDULBUL*
Roud #4321
RECORDINGS:
Ernest Hare, "Abdul Abulbul Amir" (Edison 52284, 1928)
Frank Crumit, "Abdul Abulbul Amir" (Victor 20715, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Abdul the Bulbul Emir (II)" (tune & meter)
SAME TUNE:
Frank Crumit, "The Return of Abdul Abulbul Amir" (Victor 22482, 1930)
Frank Crumit, "The Grandson of Abdul Abulbul Amir" (HMV [UK] B-4331, 1933)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Abdul, The Bulbul Ameer
Ivan Skavinsky Skevar
NOTES: Often listed as being of unknown authorship -- probably because French's original composition (set in the Crimean War) was stolen and printed without his name.
Conflict between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was almost constant in the nineteenth century, as the Tsar sought to expand his realm and the feeble Turks tried to hold onto their European possessions. Full-fledged wars were few, however, making it clear that this song refers to the Crimean War (which pitted England, France, and the Ottomans against the Russians).
Abdul's cry, "Allah Akbar," means "God is great," and is a common Islamic slogan. "Bülbül Amîr" means "nightingale chieftain" in Turkish -- but it is far from certain that French knew this. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LxA341

DESCRIPTION: Abdul the Bulbul Emir and Ivan Stavinsky Stavar engage in a duel to see who can have intercourse with the greatest number of women. At the moment of triumph, Ivan bends over, with dreadful results.
AUTHOR: original version credited to Percy French, 1877
EARLIEST DATE: original version copyright 1877 as "Abdulla Bulbul Ameer"
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody humorous sex contest homosexuality
FOUND IN: Australia Canada England New Zealand US(NE,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray, pp. 210-212, "Abdul the Bulbul" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, ABDULBL2*
Roud #4321
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I)" (tune & meter)
NOTES: The ballad here is a bawdy parody of the original, reportedly written by French at Trinity College, Dublin. - EC
For a discussion of the Crimean War setting of the original "Abdul," see that song - RBW
File: EM210

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

DESCRIPTION: "Abe Lincoln stood at the White House Gate... When along came Lady Lizzie Tod, Wishing her lover good speed." Lincoln tries several times to take Richmond, and is foiled each time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Davis)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody humorous horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Davis-Ballads 20, (No title, but filed as an appendix to "Lord Lovel") (1 text)
Friedman, p. 97, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts, but the "B" text is this)
Darling-NAS, pp. 46-47, "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate" (1 text, filed under "Lord Lovel")
Roud #6867; also 48
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel [Child 75]" and references there
NOTES: Abraham Lincoln's wife was Mary Todd; this apparently become "Lizzie Tod[d]" in the ballad.
The song as collected by Davis appears to be a fragmentary account of the various Federal attempts to take Richmond in 1861-1862. The first attempt lasted only "one or two days," seemingly referring to McDowell's Bull Run campaign of 1861. This was followed by McClellan's Peninsular campaign of spring and summer 1862, seemingly not mentioned in the song.
The final stanza refers to Lincoln's "Burnside horse," which "stuck tight in the mire." Ambrose Burnside was in charge at the Battle of Fredericksburg, which may or may not be alluded to, and also commanded the "mud march," clearly the subject of the last line. - RBW
File: DarNS046

See Johnny Fill Up the Bowl (In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One) (File: R227)

See Bollochy Bill the Sailor (File: EM081)

DESCRIPTION: The Ninety-Second Highlanders They lie in Aberdeen," preparing to cross the sea. The singer says he was surprised to see "so many weel-faured girls, And the tears rolling down their eyes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: army parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1520, "Aberdonians Fare Ye Weel" (3 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roud #12949
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Ninety-Twa" (subject: 92nd Highlanders or Gordon's Highlanders) and references there
cf. "The Battle of Barossa" (subject: 92nd Highlanders or Gordon's Highlanders) and notes there
cf. "The Muir of Culloden" (subject: 92nd Highlanders or Gordon's Highlanders) and notes there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Banks of Clyde
NOTES: The description is based on GreigDuncan8's three fragments. There may be a ballad behind them but the fragments do not hint at a story line. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81520

DESCRIPTION: About a moonshiner and how he outwits a marshal. After the revenuer finds the still and starts to take it home, but Abe and "Hanner" (Hannah?) rescue it. Chorus: "Corn liquor [or other drink, e.g. peach brandy] can (get/pull/blow) (a man/you) down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: drink police rescue
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 117-118, "Abie's White Mule" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bad Ale Can Blow a Man Down" (lyrics)
File: thBa117

DESCRIPTION: "Abilene, Abilene, prettiest town (you) ever seen, (folks) there don't treat you mean In Abilene, my Abilene." The singer complains about life in the big city, hears the trains, and wishes they were carrying (him) back to Abilene
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: home train nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 48, "Abilene" (1 text)
DT, ABILNE*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ohio River, She's So Deep and Wide" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Some sources credit this to John D. Loudermilk; others call it traditional. I'm not really sure what to think. There are verses which I think must be composed, and I have yet to see a truly traditional version. But Loudermilk could have touched up a traditional song. - RBW
The song has also been credited to the folk-revival performer Bob Gibson. - PJS
File: FSWB048

See The Good Ship Kangaroo (File: MA060)

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. Verses tell of a "lime-juice jay" that got drunk and went into a fit. The mate kicks him off the boat and he drowns. Later the mate is found with a knife in his back. Refrains repeat last lines of verses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor homicide drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow, pp. 207-208, "Aboard the Henry Clay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9160
File: Harl207

See The Good Ship Kangaroo (File: MA060)

See The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly) [Laws N4] (File: LN04)

DESCRIPTION: "On the seventeenth day of September, you know, Took place in our city the great baby show; They shut up the factories and let out all the schools." A great parade goes through the town, with riders and abolitionists -- but Democrats will win anyway
AUTHOR: Words: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Saunders/Root)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1856 - Democrat James Buchanan wins the president over Republican John C. Fremont (who was regarded as an abolitionist by most Southerners). The song describes a Republican event in Pittsburg
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Saunders/Root-Foster 2, pp. 12-13+418, "The Abolition Show" (1 text, 1 tune)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES: A curiosity in the Stephen Foster repertoire: He wrote the words, but did not write a tune, apparently setting it to "Vilikens and his Dinah." Perhaps he didn't have time to think up a tune. Foster spent much of his life in Pittsburg, and was very much a Democrat -- and wrote songs for the Democratic party. This is a clear example. There is no sign that it went into oral tradition, but there were variant versions for particular situations. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: KPL454

See About the Bush Willy (File: StoR097)

DESCRIPTION: "Aboot the bush, Willy, aboot the bee-hive, Aboot the bush, Willy, I'll meet thee belyve." "Then to my ten shillings Add you but a groat; I'll go to Newcastle And buy a new coat." The singer describes the prices of clothing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (Bruce/Stokoe)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stokoe/Reay, p. 97, "Aboot the Bush, Willy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #240, pp. 153-154, "(About the bush, Willy)"
DT, BUSHWILI
Roud #3149
File: StoR097

DESCRIPTION: "Abraham Lincoln is my name, From Illinois I did came, I entered the city in the night, And took my seat by candlelight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar playparty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861 - Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', p. 65-66, (no title) (1 fragment)
NOTES: This is probably a fragment of a song about Abraham Lincoln's sneaking into Washington for his inauguration (there were threats of violence, so he arrived in secret and disguise). But all that is left in Thomas is a fragment seemingly used as a singing game.
The likelihood is high that it is based on a traditional item of some sort:
(Name) is my name
(Country) is my nation
(Somewhere) is my dwelling (place)
And Christ is my salvation OR And Death's my destination.
Walter de la Mare, Come Hither, revised edition, 1928, prints a version of this as (32) in the notes on poem #470 (with Elizabeth Waters of Wales being the protagonist), and Alfred Bester's acclaimed science fiction novel The Stars My Destination also uses this framework as the career summary of the main character Gully Foyle. - RBW
File: ThBa065

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, kind folks listen to my song, It is no idle story, It's all about a volunteer Who's going to fight for glory!" The singer belongs to the "Fire Zou-Zous" (Zouaves), to fight for Columbia, "Abraham's Daughter." They will fight under McClellan
AUTHOR: Septimus Winner
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (sheet music, according to Silber-CivWarFull)
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-CivWarFull, pp. 99-101, "Abraham's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 102-103, "Abraham's Daughter (II)" (1 text, 1 tune, a parody sung by Ben Cotton)
File: SCWF099

See Bollochy Bill the Sailor (File: EM081)

See Down By Blackwaterside (File: K151)

See David's Lamentation (File: FSWB412B)

DESCRIPTION: The singer illustrates his absent-mindedness. A girl trips over clay and he leaves the girl for dead and takes the clay to a doctor ... He puts the kettle on a chair and sits on the fire. He puts his dog to bed and chains himself in the yard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan2); c.1890 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(99b))
KEYWORDS: humorous dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan2 284, "The Absent-Minded Man" (1 text)
Roud #5855
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(99b), "Absence of Mind," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
File: GrD2284

DESCRIPTION: A train hits a buggy sitting on the tracks. The buggy's inhabitants are killed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Cohen); apparently first printed 1909
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LSRail, p. 272, "The Accident down at Wann" (notes only)
File: LSRa272F

DESCRIPTION: The song details shipboard life, and how conditions are kept tolerable, for "There's nothing done on a limejuice ship contrary to the Act." The most obvious example is the ration of limejuice, but other rules are also cited
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: work law sailor ship
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 42-43, "According to the Act" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 58-59, "The Limejuice Ship" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbrEd pp. 54-55]
Roud #8341
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Limejuice and Vinegar
The Limejuice Ship
NOTES: The British Merchant Shipping Acts regulated most parts of a sailor's life, including the regular rations of lime juice (to prevent scurvy). Hence the title "limey" for British sailors, the word "limejuice tubs" for British ships -- and hence also this song.
Ironically, for the most part it was not lime but lemon juice that was given to sailors. They called it limejuice anyway, probably to make it sound more palatable. - RBW
File: FaE042

See The Romish Lady [Laws Q32] (File: LQ32)

See My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)

DESCRIPTION: The prospector reports on the sad fate of the gold rush men: "For each man who got rich by mining... hundreds grew poor." He decides to abandon digging and head out to be a farmer near Puget Sound. This, too, proves hard, but he is too poor to move again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: gold farming poverty settler derivative
FOUND IN: US(NW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax-FSUSA 55, "The Old Settler's Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cohen-AFS2, pp. 621-622, "The Old Settle (Acres of Clams)" (1 text plus part of an early sheet music pring)
Darling-NAS, pp. 283-284, "Acres of Clams" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 48, "Acres of Clams" (1 text)
DT, OLDSETLR*
Roud #10032
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Old Settler's Song" (on PeteSeeger47); "Acres of Clams, " [parody] (on PeteSeeger47)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "A Hayseed Like Me" (tune, lyrics)
File: LxU055

DESCRIPTION: A married man asks (Katie) to marry him and go "across the Blue Mountain to the Allegheny." Katie's mother tells her to let him stay with his own wife. Katie answers, "He's the man of my heart." (The confused ending may tell of her poverty or abandoment)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: love courting travel abandonment infidelity mother children
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 14-16, "Across the Blue Mountain" (4 texts, 1 tune)
DT, BLUEMNTN
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "High Germany (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Abrahams and Foss note that the several versions of this song (they print four, all of which reportedly use the same tune) are from the same area -- central Virginia, on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge. (The Alleghenies can indeed be seen from the crest of the Blue Ridge.)
Their four versions were all collected in 1962, from an interesting list of sources: Florence Shiflett of Wyatt's Mountain; David Morris, also of Wyatt's Mountain; Effie Morris, of Shiflett Hollow; and Marybird McAllister, of Brown's Cove.
The four versions fall into two types. The two from Wyatt's Cove end with a moralising conclusion (the girl ends up "lame" and perhaps abandoned, and regrets her ending). These stanzas have a slightly different feel from the rest of the song, and are much poorer poetry; one suspects a later addition.
On the other hand, the other two versions do not have a proper resolution; the girl simply wishes she could be with the fellow and "valleys" (envys?) the woman who will be with him.
Portions of the song seem older (e.g. all four versions have as their second verse the stanza "I'll buy you a horse, love, and a saddle to ride," which comes from "High Germany" or something similar). One suspects that a local Blue Ridge balladeer reshaped an older song to describe a now-forgotten local event.
At least, it's probably forgotten. There is a story in Walter R. Borneman's 1812: The War That Forged a Nation, p. 15, about Harmon Blennerhasset (1765-1831). Born in Ireland, he eloped in 1796 with an 18-year-old girl. Meeting disapproval at home, he sold his estates, moved to the Americas, and after a brief residence in the east, crossed the Alleghenies with the girl. Reading the story, I was instantly and strongly reminded of this song.
Of course, the details differ. One difference is substantial: The reason Blennerhasset was shunned was because the girl he eloped with was his niece. And he ended up returning home to England; he was caught up in Aaron Burr's Louisiana conspiracy. I don't really think Blennerhasset inspired this song, but it was interesting enough to form the basis for an idle footnote. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: AF014

DESCRIPTION: "Where the crimson sunset casts a ruddy glow across the plains... now he's trailed across the great divide. There'll never be another who'll be loved more than you, Although humble... You'll answer when they call Bill Rogers's name"
AUTHOR: probably Powder River Jack Lee
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee Songbook)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1879-1935 - Life of William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 32-33, "Across the Gread Divide" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee songbook attributes this to Jack Lee and lists it as "dedicated to Will Rogers." That it is about Rogers is obvious. Lee was not above putting his name on songs by others, but given that Rogers died in 1935, and this was published in 1937, it seems pretty safe to say that Lee did indeed write it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: PRJL032

DESCRIPTION: "Go straight across the hall To the opposite lady, Swing her by the right hand, Right hand round and back to the left, And balance to your partner."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 536, "Across the Hall" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7646
File: R536

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the times are hard and the wages low, Amelia, where you bound to? The Rocky Mountains is my home Across the western ocean." The emigrants leave poverty behind to set out for better conditions in America. Unusual passengers may be described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: emigration poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Colcord, p. 118, "Across the Western Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 58-59, "Across the Western Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 292-293, "Across the Rockies," "Across the Western Ocean" (2 texts, 1 tune) [AbrEd pp. 215-216]
Sandburg, p. 412, "Leave Her, Bullies, Leave Her" (2 text, 1 tune, but the "A" text is "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her")
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 71-72, "Across the Western Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 150-151, "Across the Western Ocean" (1 text, tune referenced)
SHenry H96, p. 96, "It's Time for Us to Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment, short enough that it could be this or "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her")
Silber-FSWB, p. 88, "Across the Western Ocean" (1 text)
DT, WSTOCEAN*
Roud #8234
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (floating lyrics; tune)
cf. "Uncle Bill Teller" (form, lyrics)
NOTES: Shay attempted to find a ship Amelia that might have been the inspiration for the chorus. He found none that fit, and suggested "O'Malley" as a possible emendation. Of course, the other possibility (as he himself admits) is that Amelia is just a girl.
Shay also has an unusual verse, in which the sailor heads across the ocean "To join the Irish army." Shay does not connect this with any sort of militarism; he thinks it applies simply to the mass emigration of the Irish to America.
Stephen Fox, Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isumbard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships, Harper Collins, 2003, p. 169, makes the same observation. Pointing to a verse which runs "To Liverpool I'll make my way... To Liverpool that Yankee school," he suggests that this is about the small boats which carried Irish refugees from Cork and Dublin to Liverpool, where they could board a packet ship for New York or Boston. - RBW
File: San412

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

DESCRIPTION: "Adam and Eve could never believe That Peter the Miller was dead." Peter had been locked up for stealing flour. "They bored a hole in Oliver's nose and led him by a string "for murdering Charles our king."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland)
KEYWORDS: captivity homicide punishment theft nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 29, 1660 - On his 30th birthday Charles II enters London. Restoration Day is celebrated May 29.
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland, pp. 176-177, "Adam and Eve" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #1387
NOTES: There are two issues here. First is boring a hole in someone's nose and leading them by a string. The second is leading "Oliver."
Here's a verse from Johnny Lad: "We'll bore in Aaron's nose a hole, And put therein a ring; And straight we'll lead him to and fro, Yea, lead him with a string" (source: Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1875 (reprint of 1828 edition)), Vol II, pp. 153-154, "Johnny, Lad" (1 text)). Here's a verse from something like "Old Grimes is Dead": "A friend of mine living in Oxfordshire remembers part of a song sung forty years ago (called "Old Rose") to the tune of the Old Hundredth Psalm, as follows:-- 'Old Rose is dead, that good old man, We ne'er shall see him more; He used to wear an old blue coat All buttoned down below. 'We bored a hole through Cromwell's nose, And there we put a string; We led him to the water's side, And then we pushed him in" (source: Sidney Beisly, "Song, 'Old Rose'" in Notes and Queries (London, 1868 ("Digitized by Google"), Fourth Series, Vol. I, Jan-Jun 1868 (March 7, 1868), p. 235). Also, "if the old poets can be believed, "I bored a hole in Aesop's nose, And through it run a string; I led him to the river bank, And kicked the bugger in" (source: W.W.H. Davis, El Gringo; or New Mexico and Her People (New York, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 362).
Moving from song and rhyme to story: "Now Tom, being married, made a plentiful feast, to which he invited all the poor widows in the parish, for the sake of his mother, who had been lately buried. This feast was carried on with the greatest solemnity, and, being ended, a silver cup was missing, and being asked about it they all denied it. At last, all being searched, the cup was found on an old woman named Strumbelow. Then all the rest were in a rage; some were for hanging her, others for chopping the old woman in pieces for ingratitude to such a generous benefactor. But he entreated them all to be quiet, saying they should not murder a poor old woman, for he would appoint a punishment for her, which was this: - -He bored a hole through her nose, and put a string in it, and then ordered her to be stripped; so commanding the rest of the old women to lead her through all the streets and lanes in Cambridge, which comical sight caused a general laughter. This being done, she had her clothes again, and so was acquitted" (source: "The History of Thomas Hickathrift" in Robert Hays Cunningham, editor, Amusing Prose Chap-Books Chiefly of the Last Century, (London, 1889 ("Digitized by Google"), p. 49).
[Note that this latter story has substantial similarities to the tale of Joseph, Benjamin, and the divining cup, found in Genesis 44. - RBW]
Broadwood/Maitland: "Mr Kidson writes: This is evidently a nursey or nonsense rhyme, with what appears to be an addition or alteration as early as Cromwell's time. See Hone's Every Day Book, vol.i., p. 718, for a custom connected with the subject of this song, kept up as late as 1831 [actually, as late as 1825] at Tiverton, Devon, on Restoration Day, May 29." Hone's informant writes, "... it is customary for a number of young men, dressed in the style of the 17th century, and armed with swords, to parade the streets, and gather contributions from the inhabitants. At the head of the procession walks a man called 'Oliver,' dressed in black, with his face smeared all over with soot and grease, and his body bound by a strong cord, the end of which is held by one of the men to prevent his running too far" (source: William Hone, The Every-Day Book or the Guide to the Year (London, 1825 (Digitized by Google), p. 718). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa176

DESCRIPTION: Three outlaws live in the forest. William visits his wife, is arrested, is rescued by the others. They seek pardon from the king, succeed by the queen's intervention, then show their archery prowess, including cleaving an apple on a child's head.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1536 (print from John Byddel's press, according to Child); there is a Stationer's Registry entry of Adam Bell from 1557/58, and Copland's edition (the earliest complete text) was in print by 1568
KEYWORDS: outlaw pardon royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 116, "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (2 texts)
Bronson 116, "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 version, though Bronson doubts the connection of the tune with the printed ballad)
Percy/Wheatley I, pp. 153-179, "Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley" (1 text)
Bell-Combined, pp. 28-52, "Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 text)
OBB 114, "Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 260-273, "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 text)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Oudlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 235-267, "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 text, newly edited from the sources)
Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 369-374, "Adam Bel, Clym of the Clough and William of Cloudesly" (a prose version; compare the following)
Katherine Briggs, _British Folktales_ (originally published in 1970 as _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales_), revised 1977 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback edition), pp. 68-74, "Adam Bel, Clym of the Clough and William of Cloudesly" (a prose version of the tale; compare the preceding)
Roud #3297
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Matrons" [Child 249] (theme)
NOTES: For the connection of this song with the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. There are both general links (the greenwood legend) and quite specific connections (the rescue of William has many similarities to the rescue of Robin Hood in "Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119], for instance). There are even some textual parallels. As a result, many scholars have gone so far as to see "Adam Bell" as a source of the Robin Hood tales. But it is much more likely that the dependence is the other way -- indeed, Chambers, p. 159, goes so far as to declare this piece "almost a burlesque of Robin Hood."
Dobson/Taylor, p. 258, declare this "the most dramatically exciting of all English outlaw ballads." It might perhaps be clearer to say that it is more original in incident than most of the others, since it lacks the endless repetition in the Robin Hood ballads (see, e.g. the several dozen "Robin Hood Meets His Match" ballads).
Dobson/Taylor, p. 259, claim there is an allusion to the song in Act I, scene 1 of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" (lines 258-259 in the Riverside edition, spoken by Benedick). The Riverside edition thinks this "probably" refers to Adam Bell, since there was a mention of ballad-makers a few lines earlier. The Signet Classic Shakespeare also refers it to Adam Bell, and the New Pelican says it is Adam Bell but does not mention ballads. The text however refers only to "Adam," so the matter must be less than certain.
There is a clear mention in Ben Jonson (Dobson/Taylor, p. 259).
We are told that Queen Elizabeth was present when this song was performed in the household of Robert Earl of Leicester in 1575 (Holt, p. 140). - RBW
Bibliography

• Chambers: E. K. Chambers, English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1945, 1947
• Dobson/Taylor: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976
• Holt: J. C. Holt, Robin Hood, second edition, revised and enlarged, Thames & Hudson, 1989

DESCRIPTION: Adam Cameron, "second son to Boyndie," leaves his love Fanny to join the army. Letters arrive that his brother, the heir, and Fanny are to marry. He and his colonel ride to Boyndie. He proposes, Fanny accepts, and the colonel marries them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding parting reunion money brother soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #51, p. 1, "Adam Cameron"; Greig #49, p. 1, "Adam Cameron"; Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 61-62, "Adam Cameron" (3 texts, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan5 1025, "Adam Cameron" (5 texts plus a single verse on p. 623, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 204-205, "Adam Cameron" (1 tune)
Roud #5528
NOTES: Greig comments on the confusion between "Boyndie" (Aberdeenshire) and "Boyndlie" (Banffshire, about 17 miles east of Boyndie) and, convinced that the ballad comes from Banffshire, settles on Boyndlie. However, he finds no record that the Camerons were ever landowners in Boyndlie. - BS
Greig #49: "Part of our version came from a correspondent in Zion City - an old Banffshire man; the rest has been made up from Christie's [Traditional Ballad Airs, 1881] set." - BS
There is a possibly interesting subplot here, in that the song is suspected to date from the early nineteenth century. Which was the era of commission by purchase. It was not unusual for a family to buy a commission for a younger son who had no hope of inheriting property -- but could this be an instance where the older brother bought his pesky younger brother an army post to get him out of the way? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD1025

DESCRIPTION: "Adam catched Eve by the fur below (x2), And that's the oldest catch I know (x3), Oh ho! did he so, did he so, did he so, did he so, did he so, did he so?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bawdy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-EnglishSB, pp. 22-23, "Adam Catched Eve" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: This is a (probably composed) "catch," and has not been found in tradition that I know of, but it has been recorded by several "folk" performers, so I decided to include it. The earliest printed texts read "furbelow" instead of "fur below," but this is clearly a bowdlerization. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: SESB023

DESCRIPTION: French. Song, in 23 verses, tells the entire story of Adam & Eve through the expulsion from the garden, and adds an angel announcing the Messiah to be born of the Virgin Mary to redeem humanity's anguish. Adam and Eve sadly bid farewell to Eden.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (BerryVin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage accusation exile crime punishment sin Bible religious animal gods Jesus
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BerryVin, p. 85, "Adam et Eve (Adam and Eve)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adam in the Garden Pinning Leaves" (subject)
File: BerV085

See Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178] (File: C178)

See Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178] (File: C178)

DESCRIPTION: Adam alone wishes for someone to "part and share ... hug you to my bosom." Eve is created and "he began his trade For to hug her." She is content. Toast: "every lad may get the lass That he loves in his bosom"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (IREButcher02)
KEYWORDS: love Bible
FOUND IN:
Roud #2955
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Adam In Paradise" (on IREButcher02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adam in the Garden" (theme: Adam and Eve's conjugal relations)
NOTES: Shields's notes to IREButcher02: "This is surely a fragment." - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: RcAinPar

DESCRIPTION: After Eve broke "the great command" she kissed Adam "with his apron on." Everywhere now a pretty maid happily kisses her love with his apron on. At Mason Lodge meetings each appears after "five steps that he must take" with his jewels and apron on.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(1b))
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage Bible ritual clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #153, p. 2, "The Apron"; Greig #148, p. 2, "Wi' His Apron On"; Greig #40, p. 2, ("When Adam in the garden woned") (3 fragments)
GreigDuncan3 471, "Wi' the Apron On" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #5970
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(1b), "Adam in the Garden" ("When Adam in the garden was"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also 2806 c.18(2), "Adam in the Garden"; Harding B 25(1231), "On Masonry"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wi' His Apron On" ("And he kissed his lass wi' his apron on")
cf. "The Courting Coat" ("And I rolled into bed with my kettle smock on on")
cf. "Adam in Paradise" (theme: Adam and Eve's conjugal relations)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Kissed My Love wi' His Apron On
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(1b) is the basis for the description.
The final half-line of some of the verses describes the mason "wi' his apron on." Greig #40 "Wi' His Apron On," p. 2, notes that the phrase "wi' his apron on" has a masonic reference as in the song -- "When Adam in the garden woned Along with his companion Eve ... She was never ashamed, nor could she be blamed To kiss her love wi' her apron on." See also "The Bible Story" and references there, "Adam in the Garden," and the "Freemason's Song (II)." - BS
Both "Wi' His Apron On" and "Adam in the Garden" have the "Wi' his apron on" line, and for a time I lumped them on this basis. But Ben Schwartz pointed out the large constellation of "Adam in the Garden" type lyrics which differ substantially in plot from "Wi' His Apron On," so they are now split, although the possibility of cross-influence must be allowed.
The mention of an apron in this context is interesting. The story of the Fall of Man is in Genesis 3, and in it, after they eat of the Tree of Knowledge, they use fig leaves to sew themselves some sort of clothing. The clothing is mentioned in Genesis 3:7. "Aprons" is the rendering of the King James Bible, but elsewhere it tends to use "girdle" to translate this root (four of the five other uses; the fifth uses "armor"). The Geneva Bible rendered it "breeches," a reaching also given by Wycliff ("brechis"). The New Revised Standard and Revised English Bibles read "loincloths." Thus it seems quite likely that this is a deliberate reference to Genesis. (Not that you would likely have doubted it if I hadn't written this long note.) - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: GrD3471

DESCRIPTION: Chorus "Oh Eve, where's Adam? (x3) Adam in the garden pinning leaves." "I know my God is a God of war/He fought the battle at the Jericho wall"; "The first time God called/Adam refused to answer/And the next time God called/God hollered louder."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (field recording, Alberta Bradford & Becky Elsey; cf. Lomax-Singing)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious gods
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax-Singing, pp. 4-5, "Adam in the Garden Pinnin' Leaves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 126-127, "Adam in the Garden Pinnin' Leaves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 43-44, (no name) (partial text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 24, "Adam In The Garden Pinning Leaves" (1 text)
DT, ADAMGRDN
Roud #15647
RECORDINGS:
Alberta Bradford & Becky Elsey, "Adam in the Garden Pinnin' Leaves" (AFS 105 B1, 1934)
McIntosh County Shouters, "Eve and Adam" (on McIntosh1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Adam in the Garden" (on NLCR10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John the Revelator" (theme)
cf. "Adam et Eve (Adam and Eve)" (subject)
NOTES: The mention of Adam making clothing of fig leaves occurs in the Bible in Gen. 3:7; God comes after Adam in 3:8-9. The siege of Jericho is described in Joshua 6, with a foreshadowing in Joshua 2. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: CSW126

DESCRIPTION: Written for the John Adams campaign, but in praise of American freedom (it never mentions Adams): "Ye sons of Columbia, who bravely have fought For those rights which unstained from your sires have descended" (and so on, for nine weary stanzas)
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Treate Paine, Jr.
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (composed)
KEYWORDS: patriotic political nonballad America
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1796 - John Adams's first (successful) Presidential campaign
1797-1801 - Adams's Presidency
1800 - Adams is defeated for re-election by Thomas Jefferson
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 11-14, "Adams and Liberty" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: William Arms Fisher, _One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States: 1783-1933_, Oliver Ditson Company, 1933, p. 38, "Adams and Liberty" (reduced facsimile of the original sheet music)
Dichter/Shapiro: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 23, describes six sheet music editions from 1798-1801
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star-Spangled Banner" (tune) and references there
cf. "Jefferson and Liberty" (concept)
cf. "Lincoln and Liberty" (concept)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Boston Patriotic Song
NOTES: It may reasonably be questioned if anyone actually survived reading (let alone singing) this piece. Paine (whom Spaeth says was regarded as "vain, lazy, and vicious," and a "literary hack") was nonetheless paid $750 for his efforts. (And you thought the Defense Department overpaid for the goods it received.)
Nonetheless Fisher, p. 37, declares "Of the many patriotic songs of this troubled period, the most popular was Hail! Columbia!, only rivaled by Adams and Liberty."
If this song has any distinction at all, it is that it is probably the version of the "Anacreon" tune known to Ferdinand Durang, who later fitted the tune to "The Star Spangled Banner." Early publications of the latter song advertise that it is to the tune of "Adams and Liberty."
Interestingly, it may be that this was not entirely a campaign song. Jameson has an entry on the song on p. 7: "'Adams and Liberty.' a song written by Robert Treat Paine, Jr., which enjoyed great popularity during the time of John Adams' spirited resistance to French aggression in 1798 and 1799. The air, formerly called 'Anacreon in Heaven,' is that now known as the 'Star-Spangled Banner.'"
In other words, this was not a campaign son but a war song, referring to the "Quasi-War" with France during the Adams administration. By the time this song was written, the Directory was running France, and they were trying to control American actions. They were also unofficially attacking American ships (Morison, pp. 347-348). The infamous XYZ affair followed (Morison, p. 349), and the American attitude became "Millions for Defence, but Not One Cent for Tribute" (Morison, p. 350).
Adams and the Americans did not at once go to war, but they expected France to do so. As a side effect, they created the Navy Department. A limited naval war followed (see the notes to "Truxton's Victory"). Hence the 1798 composition of the song, although it was no doubt still used during the 1800 Presidential campaign. - RBW
Bibliography

• Fisher: William Arms Fisher, One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States: 1783-1933, Oliver Ditson Company, 1933
• Jameson: J. Franklin Jameson's Dictionary of United States History 1492-1895, Puritan Press, 1894
• Morison: Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, Oxford, 1965

DESCRIPTION: A few of the characters on Adams's crew of lumberjacks are described.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger cook humorous nonballad moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck 67, "Adams's Crew" (1 text)
Roud #8843
NOTES: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. This song was collected from two of the characters chronicled in it. - PJS
File: Be067

DESCRIPTION: First line: "Adeilta se llama la ingrata Le qu' era duena de todo mi placer." The soldier says that Adelita is the source of "all my pleasures" who "drives all men to distraction." Now he must go to war; if she deserts him, he will pursue her anywhere
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: Mexico love separation soldier foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Mexico US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg, pp. 300-301, "Adelita" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 335, "Adelita" (1 text)
File: San300

DESCRIPTION: Latin: "Adeste fideles, laeti triumphantes, venite, venite in Bethlehem." English: "O come, all ye faithful, Joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem."
AUTHOR: probably John Francis Wade (d. 1786)
EARLIEST DATE: 1760 (Anglican church office manual); probably written c. 1740
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, p. 1, "Adeste Fideles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 380, "O, Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 86, "Adeste Fideles"
DT, ADESTFID*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 45, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Marilyn Kay Stulken, _Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship_, Fortress Press, 1981,pp. 146-148, discusses the history of the song and prints a copy of what seems to have been the original tune
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #5, "Adeste, Fideles" (1 text); #53, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Criterion Quartet, "Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful" (Victor 16197-B, 1908)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1871 08939, "Adeste Fideles," Wm. J Bonner & Co (Philadelphia), 1871(tune)
NOTES: The first American printing of this piece (A Latin version of c. 1803) subtitles it "The favorite PORTUGUESE HYMN On the NATIVITY," but there is no particular reason to consider it Portuguese; according to Scholes in The Oxford Companion to Music, this title derives in fact from the Portugese Chapel in London.
The piece is believed to have been composed in the early 1740s by John Francis Wade, who also wrote the Latin words. Scholes reports an Irish manuscript of the tune dated 1746, and a variation on the theme was listed as an "Air Anglais" in the French Vaudeville "Acajou" in 1744. The rather loose English translation by Frederick Oakley (1802-1880) appeared in 1852, based on Oakley's earlier 1841 translation.
Fuld gives details on other possible sources for both text and tune; all are possible, but not particularly likely. Substantiating details are lacking.
Recent scholarship has brought an interesting twist on this history. According to the Penguin Book of Carols (compare Stulkin, pp. 146-147), there are six manuscripts of this in the handwriting of John Francis Wade. The one of these thought to be oldest contains a reference to "regem nostrum Jacobum" -- "our King James," i.e. the Jacobite Old Pretender. And, of course, "regem angelorum" is quite close to "regem Angliorem," "King of England." There are also hints of Catholic practice in this manuscript. Whether all this really amounts to anything is, of course, an open question.
The Oakley translation, incidentally, has not swept all before it. I have a 1926 Lutheran hymnal, The Parish School Hymnal, with a translation dated 1849 by Edward Caswall. It begins, "Come hither, ye faithful, triumphantly sing, Come see in the manger the angels' dread King!" This same hymnal uses the tune of "Adeste Fideles" for "How Firm a Foundation," which I have always heard sung instead to a tune closely related to one of the "Poor Ellen Snith" songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: RJ19001

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu dear love but not for ever You may change but I will never Though separation be our lot Adieu dear love forget-me-not"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1545, "Adieu" (1 text)
Roud #12960
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 text.
GreigDuncan8 p. 412: apparently a verse for a valentine or album. - BS
Perhaps inspired by "Ae Fond Kiss"? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81545

DESCRIPTION: French. To make a household you must work to get money to feed a wife and children. Father, you married me to a pig of a drunkard. Cherish and caress him, daughter, and in a short time he will change and you will have your household.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage marriage drink father
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 492, "Adieu de la Mariee a Ses Parents" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea492

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu sweet lovely Nancy, ten thousand times adieu." The sailor must go over the sea "to seek for something new." He promises (to write, and tells) Nancy that, "Let my body go where it will, my heart will love you still." He hopes for a safe return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(175a))
KEYWORDS: sailor separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(MW) Australia Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Eddy 153, (fourth of several "Fragments of Irish Songs")
Peacock, p. 877, "Good-bye My Lovely Annie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 516, "Adieu My Lovely Nancy" (1 text)
Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 133, "Isle of Wight" (1 text)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 178-179, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, p. 260, "(Mary's Cot)" (1 text, mostly from this song though the first verse is "The Rose of Allandale")
DT, SWTNANCY
Roud #165
RECORDINGS:
Howard Morry, "Good-bye My Lovely Annie" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(175a), "Lovely Nancy" ("Adieu, my lovely Nancy, ten thousand times adie"), Swindells (Manchester)), 1796-1853
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Whale-Catchers" (lyrics)
cf. "Old Kitarden" (lyrics)
cf. "The Bold Privateer" [Laws O32] (lyrics)
cf. "I Love My Sailor Boy" (lyrics)
File: E153D

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the muses to help him "sing sweet Huntly's praise. I leave a girl behind me Whose joy is all my pride, And bid farewell to Huntly And adieu to Bogie side." He bids farewell to friends and lands and hopes the girl will be safe
AUTHOR: possibly John Riddell
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: love separation rambling farewell
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 265-266, "Adieu to Bogie Side" (1 text)
Greig #28, pp. 1-2, "Bogieside"; Greig #30, p. 3, "Bogieside" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
GreigDuncan8 1517, "Adieu to Bogieside" (12 texts, 12 tunes)
Ord, pp. 363-364, "Adieu to Bogie Side" (1 text)
Roud #4593
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bogie's Bonnie Belle" (lyrics)
cf. "The Sheffield Apprentice" (tune, per GreigDuncan8)
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo" (tune, per GreigDuncan8)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Farewell to Huntly
NOTES: For the complicated relationship between this song and "Bogie's Bonnie Bell," see the notes to that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FCS265

DESCRIPTION: "It's a great separation my friends they have caused me." The singer says his friends will regret driving him away. He bids farewell to friends and love. He says he will ramble and seek pleasure. When money is short, he will "chop wood and get more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: separation drink party rambling
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 178-179, "Adieu to Bon County" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ADIEUBON
Roud #15553
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell, Charming Nancy" [Laws K14] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell to Old Bedford" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: The only version of this song I have seen so far is that in the Bayard collection, and it appears incomplete. Why is the singer leaving home? (Parents' opposition?) Why is there so little mention of his lost love?
I have to suspect that this is a worn-down, possibly reworked, version of something else (e.g. "Farewell, Charming Nancy") -- but I can't identify with any real probability what the original song was. It may well go back to the same ancestor as "Farewell to Old Bedford," but there has been a lot of drift in between. - RBW
File: LxA178

See Farewell He (File: FSC41)

See Farewell He (File: FSC41)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh when I breathed a last adieu To Erin's vales and mountains blue...." The singer loves Mary, but Mary "deplores" him; he responds by leaving the country. "Can I forget the fateful day... When nought was left me but to say Farewell my love farewell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 255-256, "Adieu to Erin" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SWMS255 (Full)
Roud #2068
File: SWMS255

DESCRIPTION: The singer is far away from home. He bids adieu to the places he spent his youth, describing their beauty. He would return to see them all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: farewell Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17892
RECORDINGS:
Packie McKeaney, "Adieu to Lovely Garrison" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES: Notes to IRHardySons: "Garrison is in the north of Fermanagh, on the shores of Lough Melvin, just on the border with Co Leitrim."
The places named that I can find are all in Northern Ireland or northern Eire: in Co Fermanagh (Aghamuldowney, Farrancassidy, Lough Erne, Lough Melvin), Co Donegal (Belleek, Camlin Groves, Bundoran, Ballyshannon), Co Leitrim (Kiltyclogher), Co Down (Kilcoo) and Co Louth (Carranmore). The remaining names are Brolagh Bog, Sheehan Mountain and Knockareven. - BS
File: RcAtLoGa

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "The boatmen shout, 'tis time to part, no longer can we stay, Twas then Maimuna taught my heart how much a glance can say." Four verses describing a tearful farewell, the last two lines of each repeated are as a chorus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: shanty parting farewell
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow, pp. 169-170, "Adieu to Maimuna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8226
File: Harl169

DESCRIPTION: If the world had ended before he was born the singer's sorrows "would then have had bounds." He was born wealthy but spent it all. He has no fear of being robbed. He's satisfied now with a crust, clean water, and a dry straw bed. Things can't get worse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Baring-Gould)
KEYWORDS: poverty money drink food hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Reeves-Sharp 1, "Adieu to Old England" (1 text)
Greig #115, p. 3, ("Once I had a feather bed") (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan6 1083, "Once I Had a Feather Bed" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: S. Baring-Gould, English Minstrelsie (Edinburgh, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VI, pp. 108-109, xi-xii, "Adieu to Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1703
NOTES: I have moved the GreigDuncan6/Greig fragment here, agreeing with Roud that this is where it belongs, though the Greig singer has not yet reconciled himself to his lot: he is not a "careless Billy.." Here is the Greig fragment: "Once I had a feather bed And curtains a' roon But noo I have tae lie upon A chaff shakie doon [bed stuffed with chaff]." The closest lines in Reeves-Sharp are "Once I could lie on a good bed, A good bed that was made of soft down Now I am glad of a clot of clean straw To keep myself from the cold ground."
Baring-Gould's entry is based on a song indexed here as "Careless Billy." He begins with "Careless Billy" and then notes: "There is a song I have come upon repeatedly, for the last ten years, as a folk-ballad in the West of England, that goes over the same ground as ['Careless Billy'], but has more verses, and the chorus, 'Adieu to Old England, adieu,' .... The folk-chorus, 'Adieu to Old England, adieu,' will perhaps be more acceptable than that which insists on a 'Thin pair of breeches;' and the folk-melody of the chorus is also good, and better than a mere repetition." So, Baring-Gould has some verses from "Careless Billy," and some verses -- including the "good bed" verse -- chorus and tune from what Reeves-Sharp calls "Adieu to Old England." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD61083

See Peter Amberley [Laws C27] (File: LC27)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, admitting his "happiest moments are flown," prepares to depart Ireland and his home. He bids farewell to everything he can think of -- the countryside, relatives, pastor. He will dig gold in Australia, and hopes he can return home
AUTHOR: James Maxwell ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell gold
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H245, pp. 197-198, "Adieu to the Banks of the Roe" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH245

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu to the stone walls," the prisoner sighed, "I'm now going to leave you, I've made up my mind." The convict makes his way to a train, buys clothes in town, and gains his freedom by playing the role of a brakeman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from the Gant Family)
KEYWORDS: prison escape disguise clothes trick
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-Singing, pp. 311-313, "Adieu to the Stone Walls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15602
File: LoSi311

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu, false heart, since we must part, May the joys of the world go with you." The singer says (he) thought (him)self too good for her. She proudly says that "You are very much mistaken" if he thinks she loves him and/or says she will go to her grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (collected from Bessie James Totty by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: love death rejection floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boswell/Wolfe 73, pp. 119-120, "Adieu, False Heart" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11042
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Smith Trio (Fiddlin' Arthur Smith), "Adieu False Heart" (Bluebird 7651)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Curragh of Kildare" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
False Love
File: BoWo073

See Sweet Jane [Laws B22] (File: LB22)

DESCRIPTION: Despite being badly outnumbered, Benbow prepares for battle (against the French), but captains Kirkby and Wade flee the contest. In the fight that follows, Benbow loses his legs, but orders his face to be turned toward the fight even as he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841
KEYWORDS: battle sea death abandonment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1702 - Death of Admiral John Benbow in battle in the West Indies
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
PBB 76, "The Death of Admiral Benbow" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 87, "Admiral Benbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge II, pp. 92-93, "Admiral Benbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ADBENBOW* ADBENBW2
ADDITIONAL: Bertrand Bronson, "Samuel Hall's Family Tree,'" article published in the _California Folklore Quarterly_ (1942); republished on pp. 30-47 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009, discusses "Sam Hall," "Captain Kidd,,""Admiral Benbow," and related songs, with all or part of 16 texts and 9 tunes
C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 149, "The Death of Admiral Benbow" (1 text)
Roud #227
NOTES: The story outlined here is true in its general details. John Benbow (1653-1702), commanding the British in the West Indies, and was mortally wounded in battle with the French after two of his captains deserted him (the two were later tried and executed for cowardice). The battle took place off Cartagena (the one in Columbia, not the one in Spain; Mahan, p. 207). Benbow became a naval hero, and several later battleships were named for him.
One version of the story is briefly told in Herman, pp. 245-246. Herman argues that Benbow was wrong and his captains right: The British squadron of six ships was not strong enough to fight the French. But Benbow (who lost only his right leg, not both) lived long enough to order the court martial of the rebellious officers. The leader, Richard Kirkby of the Defiant, was executed, as was one of the other captains. This firmly established the principle of obedience to orders no matter how stupid.
Not everyone agrees with Herman's interpretation. Woodman devotes pp. 48-58 to Benbow and his subordinates, and draws a very different picture. Benbow was a very unusual admiral, in that he was a "tarpaulin" officer -- that is, one drawn from the ranks of the sailors, rather than a noble who went straight into the officer class (Woodman, p. 48). He didn't even come up through the naval ranks; he had gone to sea as a merchant sailor, and risen to captain, and then been offered a naval command by James II because he had done an impressive job of beating off a pirate attack (Brumwell/Speck, p. 48).
That background as a merchant sailor and a privateer as well as in the navy, and seems to have developed a very high opinion of his own judgment as a result (Woodman, p. 49). Woodman, p. 49, says that the French fleet under Ducasse had a fleet with a total of 258; Benbow's force he lists as having 456 guns. If true, then Benbow's decision to attack was reasonable.
Bruce/Cogar, p. 40, sum up Benbow's career as follows: "Although Benbow came to be regarded as a hero in popular legend, there remains a doubt about his place in British naval history and whether his high reputation was well deserved."
Clark, p. 317, summarizes the whole incident as follows: "Vice-Admiral John Benbow, with seven English ships, had a good opportunity of attacking a weaker French squadron which remained to operate against English and Dutch commerce. Unfortunately four of his captain failed to join the fight, and it was a failure. Benbow was mortally wounded. Two of the captains were court martialed and shot. There is a still popuar folk-song about this dramatic but unimportant event."
Brumwell/Speck, pp. 48-49, also considers Benbow's squadron superior to the French, and speculates that his officers refused orders because they considered him their social inferior.
Stokesbury, p. 108, also declares the French squadron "weak." He makes the interesting note that Benbow's story did not immediately inspire firm obedience by future captains; in 1708. Admiral Wager could not make his captains fight at Porto Bello.
Most texts of this fit the tune of "Captain Kidd" (and the only one I've seen which doesn't appears to have been fiddled with), though the tune in Chappell isn't quite the standard "Captain Kidd." It is also said to be used for "A Virgin Most Pure." We might note that Kidd went to the scaffold at the time Benbow was fighting his fight with the French.
This is not the only song about Benbow; Firth (who calls this one "The Death of Admiral Benbow") prints another, "Admiral Benbow," on p. 148. That is said to date from at least 1784, though it appears less popular than this (which seems to have first been printed in Halliwell's Early Naval Ballads).
Benbow's reputation as a stickler seems to have been richly deserved; in addition to his conduct in the battle that caused his death, he was tough on people who showed up in the West Indies without leave -- even if they were subjects of the British crown! When the Scottish Darien expedition resulted in disaster, a shipful of colonists fled to the Indies -- and were refused help by Benbow (Thomson, p. 88). - RBW
Bibliography

• Bruce/Cogar: Anthony Bruce and William Cogar, An Encyclopedia of Naval History, 1998 (I use the 1999 Checkmark edition)
• Brumwell/Speck: Stephen Brumwell and W. A. Speck, Cassell's Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain, Cassell & Co., 2001
• Clark: G. N. Clark, The Later Stuarts 1660-1714, corrected edition, Oxford, 1944
• Herman: Arthur Herman, To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World, 2004 (I use the 2005 Harper Perennial edition)
• Mahan: Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783, 1890 (mine is a reprint edition, but -- astonishingly -- it does not say who is the modern publisher!)
• Stokesbury: James L. Stokesbury, Navy & Empire, Morrow, 1983
• Thomson: Oliver Thomson, The Great Feud: The Campbells & The Macdonalds, Sutton Publishing, 2000
• Woodman: Richard Woodman, A Brief History of Mutiny, Carroll & Graf, 2005.

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we sail'd to Virginia, And from thence to Fial." The fleet sees seven sails. They draw up in line and fight for four hours. Admiral Benbow is wounded by a chain shot and is carried below but says to keep fighting. He is remembered after his death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-Sailor)
KEYWORDS: battle sea death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1702 - Death of Admiral John Benbow in battle in the West Indies
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-Sailor, #19 insert, "Admiral Benbow" (1 text)
Roud #3141
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(261), "Admiral Benbow," W. Armstrong (Liverpool) 1820-1824
NOTES: For background on John Benbow, see the notes to "Admiral Benbow (I)" - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: AshS019i

DESCRIPTION: Admiral Byng is ordered "the French to disperse from New Home" in the Mediterranean Sea. He sends Admiral West to attack the French but he held his own ship back. The ballad implies he was bribed. He is condemned by the King to be shot.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: battle navy execution trial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 14, 1757 - Admiral John Byng executed for neglect of duty for his part in the loss of Minorca to the French (source: "Minorca" at the Blupete site).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #151, p. 1, "Come All Ye British Tars" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 140, "Admiral Byng" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 260-261, "Admiral Byng and Brave West" (1 tune)
Roud #3791
NOTES: Greig: "The victim into whose mouth the ballad is put was Admiral Byng. He was sent with a squadron to relieve the island of Minorca, which was blockaded by a French fleet. Rear-Admiral West played his part well, but Byng handled his ships so unsuccessfully that he had to sail back to Gibraltar, leaving Minorca to its fate. For this failure he was recalled, tried, and condemned to be shot on board ship. This was in 1757."
The court never considered that bribery or gold played any part in the Admiral Byng's decision not to try to relieve General Lord Blakeney at St Philip's Castle on Minorca. (Burke, pp. 72-81).
GreigDuncan1: "It is included by Bertrand Harris Bronson in his discussion of songs with this distinctive stanza pattern; see "Samuel Hall's Family Tree" in The Ballad as Song (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969), pp. 18-36. Here is the last verse:
All traitors gets their doom, so maun I, so maun I,
All traitors gets their doom, so maun I;
All traitors gets their doom, wears the sackcloth in their bloom,
Because it is their doom, so maun I.
I assume "New Home" is either on or near Minorca, the site of the battle. - BS
I think "New Home" is probably an error for "Mahon," or Port Mahon, the chief harbor on Minorca. The Spanish name is accented on the second syllable, which makes this mis-hearing more likely.
If Admiral John Byng (1704-1757) is remembered today, it is usually for the quip Voltaire penned regarding his execution: The British executed an admiral from time to time "pour encourager les autres," "to encourage the others" (see, e.g., Borneman, p. 66; Brumwell/Speck, p. 67; Keegan, p. 45; Herman, p. 281; McLynn, p. 196.).
Byng had had a distinguished career until then -- although the son of an admiral, he had not joined the navy as a midshipman but rather as an able seaman in 1718 (Brumwell/Speck, p. 67). He probably wasn't a great admiral, but most of his misfortune was really the result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He found himself in the middle of an undeclared war. What Europeans called the "Seven Years' War" officially ran from 1756 to 1763 -- but it had already gone on for more than a year in the America (for the early phases of the French and Indian War, as it was known in the colonies, see "Braddock's Defeat"). So it was quite clear that war was coming in Europe -- but diplomatic niceties had to be observed; no one wanted to be blamed for firing the first shot.
The French had the strategic initiative. They had forces on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts -- the former in position to sail to North America, where the French already had had success, the latter in position to capture Minorca. The British navy could potentially halt either move (Borneman, p. 62, estimates they had an advantage of about 100 ships of the line to 60 for the French) -- but only if it knew where to go!
The French goal seems to have been to nibble away at the British. Minorca was an obvious spot. British only since 1708, it had become a major British naval base (Borneman, p. 63), but it was much more accessible to the French than the British. And the British forces in the area were clearly inadequate: Four ships of the line, three frigates, and one sloop. The need to reinforce was obvious. Hence Byng was sent with reinforcements. The son of a famous though not always successful admiral (Keegan/Wheatcroft, pp. 55, 304), Byng had served at sea from an early age (Borneman, p. 63), but he had limited experience in combat. He was regarded as a good administrator (Anderson, p. 170), was known for strict discipline (Borneman, p. 63), and apparently was highly regarded prior to the Minorca fiasco (Herman, p. 280).
The French had anticipated the declaration of war. Their attacking force, commanded by Admiral la Galissoniere and supported by twelve ships of the line, had left Toulon on April 10, 1756, with 150 transports and 15,000 soldiers (Mahan, p. 285). The force had arrived at Minorca on April 19. This was overwhelming force against a defending army of only about three thousand men.
By the time Byng reached Minorca on May 2, the French were already attacking the tiny garrison at Fort Saint Philip (Borneman, p. 64), even though France had not yet formally declared war. The forces on Minorca could not hold out long; they were too heavily outnumbered. Their only hope was for Byng to defeat the French fleet in the area and cut off the attackers.
Byng was in many ways at a disadvantage. His nearest base was Gibraltar, whereas the French were based in Toulon. Not only was Toulon closer, it was the main base of the French navy. And he was afraid to take troops from Gibraltar lest it too be invaded (Borneman, p. 64). Plus Byng's fleet was far from modern. He flew his flag in the 90-gun Ramillies, which had begun life as the Royal Katherine in 1664. The ship was "rebuilt" in 1702 (at a time when "rebuilding" meant something close to building a ship from scratch), but that still made the vessel more than half a century old at the time Byng took command of the squadron. She had been renamed Ramillies some fifty years before (for details on this, see Paine, p. 419).
"[T]he ships in his task force had only recently returned from raiding French commerce in the Atlantic. It was, therefore, with depleted crews, unmade repairs (two ships were taking on water fast enough to require frequent pumping), and fouled hulls that Byng's ships sailed from Portsmouth on April 7" (Anderson, p. 170).
The battle was completely one-sided. There seems to be disagreement about what Byng intended. Mahan, p. 285, seems to say that Byng's intention was to fight in line ahead (that is, with all of his ships in a single line, with each English ship fighting what amounted to a single combat with a French ship), following the official British Fighting Instructions. Borneman, p. 65, argues that he wanted to "cross the T" on the enemy line and attack the rear of the French line, but that there was a signalling failure which caused the lead ships to go off in the wrong direction.
Whatever Byng's intention, the two fleets approached at a rather large angle -- estimated to have been about 30 to 40 degrees (Mahan, p. 286). This meant, since Byng was attacking the French fleet outside Port Mahon, that the lead British ships were much closer to the French line than the ships in the rear. When Byng gave the order to start the engagement, the ships at the front of the line did so, spending some four hours in combat (Anderson, p. 171) but the ships at the back were, in effect, left behind. The ships at the front of the line, in consequence, suffered rather severely (none were sunk but all had damage which affected their ability to sail); those at the back split off and accomplished nothing (Mahan, p. 287).
After the battle, Byng held a council of war with his captains. They concluded that they could not save Minorca; better to make sure that Gibraltar at least was safe (Mahan, p. 290; Borneman, p. 65). Byng headed back to Gibraltar, and the French captured Port Mahon on June 29 (Herman, p. 278).
Herman, p. 280, notes that "To this day historians debate the pros and cons of the case."
"[H]is failure at Minorca was as much a matter of following the official orders for line ahead battles too literally as it was a failure of nerve. Anson... had ordered Byng brought back to England for court-martial. The court of twelve naval officers had to find him guilty for avoiding battle: under Anson's own revisions to the Articles of War, they had no choice but to sentence Byng to death" (Herman, p. 280).
"At Gibraltar, Byng was relieved by Hawke and sent home to be tried. The court-martial, while expressly clearing him of cowardice or disaffection, found him guilty of not doing his utmost either to defeat the French fleet or relieve the garrison of Mahon; and, as the article of war prescribed death with no alternative punishment for this offence, it felt compelled to sentence him to death. The king refused to pardon, and Byng was accordingly shot" (Mahan, pp. 290-291).
"In retrospect, Byng's concern for Gibraltar and his decision not to risk his entire fleet when other corners of the British Empire were far more dependent on it than Minorca, may well prove his competence. And, of course, if his orders had been carried out competently in the first place, the result may have been far different. Instead, his execution became one of the most egregious affairs in the annals of the Royal Navy" (Borneman, p. 65).
"Byng... was executed not because he had lost the battle of Minorca (1756) but because he had done so in breach of the permanent fighting instructions and so confronted his court-martial with no choice but to condemn him to the firing-squad" (Keegan, p. 45).
Ironically, Keegan seems to think highly of Byng, at least in broad terms. At this time, few naval battles produces a clear winner, so "[s]everal British admirals of the eighteenth century, of whom Byng was one, experimented at the risk of professional -- even personal -- extinction with tactics more likely to yield a decisive outcome" (Keegan, p. 49). Byng's problem was that he did not come up with the idea of breaking the line, which would wait for Rodney and Nelson.
What the court could do, it did: They recommended that the King pardon him. Pleas for mercy came from all quarters. But the government, its survival on the line, ignored all the calls. Byng was executed by firing squad on board the Monarque (a captured French ship) "on March 14, 1757 -- the first and only British admiral ever executed for cowardice" (Herman, p. 281).
"Everywhere rose the cry for the punishment of Admiral Byng.... Members of parliament received petitions to call the ministers to account for sending him out too late. The naval court-martial, deliberating under the pressure of rising public resentment, condemned the unhappy Byng to death....
"As a matter of fact, Byng had done nothing to justify the verdict. Of the crime of which he was declared guilty -- neglect of duty in battle -- he was entirely innocent. For the offenses of which he was guilty -- the desertion of Minorca and disobedience to admiralty instructions -- there was no legal penalty. The court somehow felt that the death penalty was excessive and recommended him to His Majesty's clemency. But that was denied him, for all around there stood the fallen ministers with their bribes and their boroughs, ready to crush anyone who suggested that Byng was not the sole author of the loss of Minorca. There is, perhaps, no more conclusive example of the extent and diversity of Whig patronage than the tale of the gates of mercy being shut against Byng" (Dorn, p. 345).
The whole business proved so controversial that being pro- or anti-Byng actually came to be a basis for official promotion or censure (McLynn, p. 108). His fate also caused admirals to become somewhat afraid of having prudence mistaken for cowardice, which occasionally caused them to become rather rash (McLynn, p. 173)
In a greater sense, Byng's defeat was a help to the British cause. The Newcastle government fell, and William Pitt the Elder took over (Herman, p. 279; Dorn, p. 291, though Dorn, p. 345, notes that this was a temporary government; Pitt would not really gain control until later, in a sort of coalition in which he ran things and Newcastle handled patronage duties; cf. Borneman, p. 73). Pitt swept a lot of chaff out of the war departments, and went on to win the war. But it was too late for Byng, who probably would have been out of a job even if he had still been alive -- it was Pitt who really put his trust in better admirals such as Anson and Hawke (for whom see "Bold Hawke") as well as generals such as Amherst (for whom see especially "Brave Wolfe" [Laws A1]).
Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 55, sum up the situation this way: "Byng was a victim of public hysteria and government cowardice. Walpole commented, "The persecution of his enemies, who sacrifice him for their own guilt and the rage of a blind nation, have called forth all my pity for him" (Herman, p. 281).
There was one positive effect: The Laws of War were revised to make them a little more flexible and reasonable (Manwaring/Dobree, p. 246). - RBW
Bibliography

• Anderson: Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766, 2000 (I use the 2001 Vintage Books edition)
• Borneman: Walter R. Borneman, The French & Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America, Harper Collins, 2006
• Brumwell/Speck: Stephen Brumwell and W. A. Speck, Cassell's Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain, Cassell & Co., 2001
• Burke: Peter Burke, Celebrated Naval and Military Trials, Lindon, 1866, quoted in a pdf file "The Trial of Admiral Byng" at the Hillsdale College site
• Dorn: Walter L. Dorn, Competition for Empire: 1740-1763 (part of the "Rise of Modern Europe" series), 1940 (I use the 1963 Harper Torchbooks version with revised bibliography)
• Herman: Arthur Herman, To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World, 2004 (I use the 2005 Harper Perennial edition)
• Keegan: John Keegan, The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare, Penguin, 1988, 1990
• Keegan/Wheatcroft: John Keegan and Andrew Wheatcroft, Who's Who in Military History from 1453, 1976, 1987 (I use the 1991 Promotional Reprint Company edition)
• Mahan: Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783, 1890 (mine is a reprint edition, but -- astonishingly -- it does not say who is the modern publisher!)
• Manwaring/Dobree: G. E. Manwaring and Donamy Dobree, The Floating Republic" An Account of the Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore in 1797, 1935 (I use the 2004 Pen & Sword paperback)
• McLynn: Frank McLynn: 1759,: The Year Britain Became Master of the World, 2004 (I use the 2005 Pimlico paperback edition)
• Paine: Lincoln P. Paine, Ships of the World, Houghton Mifflin, 1997

See Crafty Wee Bony (File: GrD1151)

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

DESCRIPTION: "Paddy ... join with your protestant brother." "Your foes have long prided to see you divided." If together, your foes won't oppose you. "Then your rights will be granted"; "keep asunder ... you shall live and die slaves"
AUTHOR: Edward Lysaght (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 40, "Advice to Paddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: This is one of those sadly ironic songs: Most of the early Irish agitation for independence was led by Protestants (e.g. Wolfe Tone was Protestant). Their attempts at rebellion failed in no small part because the Catholic peasantry was indifferent. (Understandably, since their problems were with landlords; the English government had no direct impact on their hardscrabble lives).
If Moylan's dating is right, though, by the time this was written, the situation had changed. By the late nineteenth century, Britain would have been willing to grant Home Rule in some form -- but the idea always died due to the opposition of Irish Protestants, especially in Ulster. Those people, once at the heart of the rebellion, had by then started to cling to Britain as protection for their rights. - RBW
File: Moyl040

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Sinner, you'd better take heed to the Savior's word today. You will follow the Christian round and still you will not pray." "Your body has to lie in the ground." "When Gabriel sounds his trumpet, you'll be lost." You get the idea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious death sin
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 64, "Advice to Sinners" (1 text)
Roud #7847
NOTES: Evidently the author, like so many other "hymn" writers, had read every verse in the Bible except those dealing with judgment ("Judge not, that you be not judged," Matt. 7:1, etc.), forgiveness ("For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive... neither will your Father forgive," Matt. 6:14-15, etc.), and punishment ("Let the one without sin cast the first stone", John 8:7).
It never ceases to amaze me how many Bibles there are in the world with those verses left out. - RBW
File: Br3064

See The Bald-Headed End of the Broom (File: FaE190)

See Tripping Over the Lea [Laws P19] (File: LP19)

DESCRIPTION: "Ae nicht we a' to Banff did gang, I believe we had sma' errant O. There was ither three as weel as me, We a' set oot a'steerin' [GreigDuncan8: to cause a disturbance] O."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1766, "Ae Nicht We A' to Banff Did Gang" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13014
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81766

See The Heavenly Aeroplane (File: R660)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, while courting Betsy, takes up with Jean. He meets both in the market: "they laughed and they jeered at me too." Each takes up with another man leaving him crying. "Be sure to be aff wi' the auld love, Afore ye be on wi' the new"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity rejection warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #172, p. 2, "The Auld Love and the New" (1 text)
GreigDuncan6 1127, "Aff Wi' the Auld Love" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6834
File: GrD61127

DESCRIPTION: The wife complains her husband urinates on the floor rather than in the chamber pot. He replies that his first wife allowed him to defecate in the bed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: scatological husband wife
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph-Legman II, pp. 590-591, "Afore Daylight" (1 text)
File: RL590

DESCRIPTION: "Ninni nonni simungi, Ninni nonni simungi, Ninni nonno sidubi sabadute simungi. Ninni nonni simungi, Ninni nonni simungi, Ninni nonno sidubi sabadute simungi."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 19, "African Counting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Scarborough's informant claimed that this was a counting song from Africa, but if he gave either a translation or a reference to the *part* of Africa, Scarborough failed to record it.
I do note that there are five words. Given what it known about some African counting systems, this raises the possibility that they stand for "one," "two," "three," "four," and "many." But I frankly doubt the whole business. - RBW
File: ScaNF019

DESCRIPTION: ""After Aughrim's great disaster, When our foe in sooth was master," a few survivers escape and hope to continue the struggle. The survivors go their separate ways (perhaps into exile), wishing success to their king
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: battle death disaster rebellion Ireland separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1691 - Battle of Aughrim. Decisive defeat of Irish Catholic forces
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
PGalvin, pp. 17-18, "After Aughrim's Great Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16907
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. " Sean a Duir a'Ghleanna" (form)
NOTES: The Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (for which see "The Battle of the Boyne (I)") marked the real end of Jacobite hopes; James II fled to the continent following that battle, the French reduced their already limited commitment, and William III (who had overthrown James) returned to Britain. (It didn't help that the remaining Irish leaders despised each other.)
Many Irish, however, continued in rebellion, retreating to Athlone and Limerick. The British command was turned over to General Ginkel (the "Dutchman" of the song), who captured Athlone on June 30. Most Irish leaders wanted to concentrate on a holding action at Limerick, but St Ruth, the French commander, wanted to fight. He picked a position at Aughrim and waited for Ginkel.
Aughrim was a near-fought thing. Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 183, declare, that Ginkel's crossing of the Shannon "was followed by 'Aughrim's dread disaster,' the major battle of the war. St Ruth, the French commander, had chosen a strong position on the slopes of Kilcommodon hill. Ginkel's army floundered into the bog that separated the armies, and St Ruth called on his men to drive the enemy to the gates of Dublin. Then at a critical stage of the battle St Ruth was killed; a causeway through the bog was betrayed to Ginkel's men[,] and confusion set in on the Irish side. Their losses were heavy and Ginkel won an impressive victory.
When the English won, they won decisively. St Ruth was dead, Tyrconnell died in August, and only Limerick was left in Irish hands. Sarsfield (Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan c. 1655-1693), the last real Irish leader and the best soldier of the lot, decided to seek terms while he still had a bargaining position.
On October 3, an agreement was secured under which the rebels could either swear allegiance to William or go into exile. Although William's guarantees included religious freedom, many chose to leave their country. The flight of "The Wild Geese" was in many ways the worst disaster in Irish history to this time. The anniversary of Aughrim continues to be a bitter day in Irish memories.
Sarsfield, having done what he could, joined the French service, and was killed at the Battle of Landen in 1693.
Not everyone was impressed with Sarsfield, to be sure. R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland 1600-1972 Penguin, 1988, 1989, p. 148, notes that he came to everyone's attention for his bravery at the Boyne, but adds that "He was celebrated for his bravery but was notoriously not very bright; jealousy aroused by the Sarsfield mystique exacerbated the indiscipline an dissensions that already rent the Jacobites. On the other hand, his inspirational leadership helped raise Irish morale...."
This should not be confused with the Honorable Emily Lawless's poem 'After Aughrim," for which see, e.g., MacDonagh/Robinson, pp. 100-101. - RBW
Bibliography

• Foster: R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland 1600-1972, Penguin, 1988, 1989
• MacDonagh/Robinson: Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, Oxford, 1958, 1979
• Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely: T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and Dermot Keough, with Patrick Kiely, The Course of Irish History, fifth edition, 2011 (page references are to the 2012 paperback edition)

DESCRIPTION: A girl asks her uncle why he never married. He recalls the sweetheart he took to a ball. After leaving for a moment, he sees her kissing another man. He abandons her; years later, after she is dead, he learns that the other man was her brother
AUTHOR: Charles K. Harris
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation death abandonment
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Cambiaire, p. 105, "After the Ball" (1 text)
Stout 45, pp. 62-63, "After the Ball" (1 text plus a fragment and a fragment of a parody)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 169-175, "After the Ball, the Deluge" (1 text plus variants, 1 tune)
Geller-Famous, pp. 64-69, "After the Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 260-262, "After the Ball" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 268, "After The Ball Is Over" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 87, "After the Ball"
DT, AFTRBALL* (UNFORTU6* -- a parody)
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 156-158, "After the Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 1-5, "After the Ball" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original shee music)
Roud #4859
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "After The Ball (Okeh 45669, c. 1933; rec. 1930)
Homer Christopher & Wife, "After the Ball" (OKeh 45041, 1926
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "After the Ball" (Brunswick 394, rec. 1929)
Vernon Dalhart, "After the Ball" (Columbia 15030-D, 1925) (Edison 51610 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], 1925)
Dixon Brothers, "After the Ball" (Montgomery Ward M-7577, 1938)
Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton, "After the Ball" (Columbia 15254-D, 1928)
Humphries Brothers, "After the Ball" (OKeh 45478, 1930)
Bradley Kincaid, "After the Ball" (Supertone 9648, 1930) (Conqueror 7984, 1932)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "After the War Is Over" (tune)
cf. "Tragic Romance" (plot)
cf. "Fatal Rose of Red" (theme)
cf. "Grandfather's Story" (theme)
cf. "After the Ball Was Over, Sally Plucked Out Her Glass Eye" (form)
SAME TUNE:
After the War is Over (File: R855)
Poor Nellie (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 143)
After the Strike is Over (IWW Song; Edward J. Cowan, _The People's Past_, p. 167)
After the Fall (by D. J. O'Malley; see John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), p. 82)
NOTES: Gilbert describes how Harris (at the time, according to Geller, an impoverished banjo teacher) wrote this song by blowing an actual incident all out of proportion (he saw a girl distressed by a fight with her lover, but there is no evidence that the quarrel ended their relationship).
The song was one of the most popular of its era; sales of the sheet music earned Harris $48,000 in just its first year in print. Waites & Hunter report that it was the first song to sell five million copies of the sheet music. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: SRW169

DESCRIPTION: "After the ball was over," Sally removes her glass eye, false teeth, cork leg and false hair.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: hair dancing humorous nonballad parody oldmaid disguise
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 4, "After the Ball Was Over, Sally Plucked Out Her Glass Eye" (2 texts)
Roud #4859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Warranty Deed (The Wealthy Old Maid)" [Laws H24] (theme)
cf. "After the Ball" (tune)
NOTES: OCroinin-Cronin: "It is a parody of the kind common among children" and quotes an almost identical parody reported by Opie and Opie in The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. The parody is of Charles K Harris's "After the Ball." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC004

DESCRIPTION: The wounded singer is lying on the battle field among the dead and dying. When "the foemen turned and fled" his wound stopped him from following. He waits for morning. "Still I feel that I shall see you and the dear old home again"
AUTHOR: George Frederick Root (1820-1895) (source: PopMusicMTSU 94-017 Goldstein ID 001256-BROAD)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-Larkin); before 1865 (broadside LOCSinging, cw103160)
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar war death dying injury nonballad mother
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Musick-Larkin 3, "Just After the Battle" (1 text)
Roud #4277
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, cw103160, "Just After the Battle" ("Still upon the field of battle"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb20250b, "Just After the Battle"; hc00015a, hc00015b, "Just After the Battle Mother"; cw1000070, cw100080, "After the Battle Mother"
PopMusicMTSU, 94-017 Goldstein ID 001256-BROAD, "After the Battle Mother" ("Still upon the field of battle"), J.H. Johnson (Philadelphia), 1858-1859 and 1863-1876
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging cw103160: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: MuLa003

DESCRIPTION: "Angels are weeping o'er the foreign war... But still they are calling young men to war.... After the war is over, after the world's at peace, many a heart will be aching After the war has ceased. Many a home will be vacant, many a child left alone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: war death derivative
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 855, "After the War is Over" (1 short text)
Roud #7530
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "After the Ball" (tune)
File: R855

DESCRIPTION: "An afternoon like this it was in tough old Cherokee An outlaw come a-hornin' in an' ask who I might be...." The singer boasts of Indians and outlaws in his background (e.g. Jesse James was his uncle), of learning to swear before learning to talk, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Hoofs and Horns)
KEYWORDS: cowboy outlaw bragging family
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 35, "Cowboy Boasters" (5 texts, 2 tunes; this is the "E" text)
Roud #11217
File: FCW035E

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A mock epic on a bicycle accident suffered by a local brave. The event takes on international significance with messages of condolence from President de Valera, Mussolini, and Hitler, and from President Roosevelt of the United States."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 5, "Ag Lochan na Muinge" (1 text)
NOTES: The description is the [repunctuated] "English Summary" provided by OCroinin-Cronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC005

DESCRIPTION: Nancy sees the victim in the wave and rushes in to save him. "Then he grasped her; they sunk, in the wave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #66, p. 2, ("Again the loud swell brought the object in view") (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan8 1911, "Again the Loud Swell Brought the Object in View" (1 fragment)
Roud #13556
File: GrD81911

DESCRIPTION: A hunter, his wife, and his daughter live near Indians. One day, when the hunter is gone, an Indian comes and takes the child from the frantic mother. The child never returns, but teaches the Indian to love and revere the Bible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) abduction Bible
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden, pp. 294-295, "Uncle Tahiah" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 53, pp. 124-125, "The Aged Indian" (1 text)
Roud #6553
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Captive" (plot elements)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Uncle Tahia
NOTES: Your guess is as good as mine as to whether this is pro- or anti-Indian. - RBW
File: LPnd124

DESCRIPTION: "In prime of years, when I was young, I took delight in youthful toys." "At seven years old I was a child." "At twice seven, I must needs go learn." "At three times seven, I waxed wild." The singer tells of life seven years at a time and prepares to ldie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-Peasantry); supposedly printed in broadside by Thackeray before 1700 [according to Dixon-Peasantry]; c. 1790 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 3(39))
KEYWORDS: age drink hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dixon-Peasantry, Poem #2, pp. 7-10, "The Life and Age of Man" (1 text)
Bell-Combined, pp. 240-242, "The Life and Age of Man" (1 text)
BroadwoodCarols, pp. 20-21, "The Ages of Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #617
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 3(39), "The Age of Man, displayed in ten different stages of life" ("In prime of years when I was young"), J. Evans and Co. (London), c1790; also 2806 c.16(317), "The Age of Man, displayed in ten stages of life"; Harding B 28(230), "The Ten Stages of Human Life"; Harding B 17(2a), Firth c.21(47), "Age of Man"; Harding B 15(279b), "The Seven Ages of Man" [apparently a printer, Such, decision to omit stage 8, 9 and the conclusion; in some other broadsides those verses are printed in a second column under some other song ...]; Firth c.21(46), "The Seven Ages of Man" [... as in this case where Such prints the final three verses "(continued.)" in a second column]
NOTES: Jean Ingelow wrote a poem, "Seven Times One" or "The Song of Seven," published, e.g., on p. 126 of Jean Ingelow, [The Poetical Words of Jean Ingelow] (N.B. Poems is the common title of this work, but my copy simply says Jean Ingelow on the cover and spine, and has no title page. Nor is there a copyright claim; the dedication is from 1863, but the book seems to have been published by T. Y. Crowell & Co. in the 1870s). This follows the same format as this song, being a child's account of life at seven-times-one, seven-times-two, etc., although it does not reach the age of seventy as in this song. But the similarities are enough that I suspect some sort of dependence.
The song's reference to ten times seven being the end of life is presumably a reference to Psalm 90:10, "The years of our lives are three score and ten." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: LEBC20

DESCRIPTION: Among the many bonny lasses in Edinburgh the singer loves "little Aggie Bell" He describes her features and recalls seeing her at a dance where "mony a lass that thocht nae little o' hersel'" but none outshone Aggie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: love beauty dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 716, "Aggie Bell" (1 text)
Roud #6154
NOTES: GreigDuncan4 quoting Greig's source's [Bell Robertson's] notes: "This is a stray song I picked up. During the Creman [sic] war." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4716

See The Aughalee Heroes (File: Zimm098)

DESCRIPTION: King Henry (V) travels to France "wyth grace and myght of chyvalry," captures Harfleur, and wins a great victory at Agincourt, "Wherfore Englonde may call and cry, 'Deo gracias (x2) anglia Rede pro victoria.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1500 (Bodleian MS Selden B. 26); hints in chronicles imply that it was sung at Henry V's return to England 1415/16
KEYWORDS: England France battle royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1413 - Accession of Henry V
Aug 11, 1415 - Invasion of France
Sept 22, 1415 - Surrender of Harfleur
Oct 25, 1415 - Battle of Agincourt. Henry V, outnumbered by about 10 to 1, defeats the French, inflicting casualties in the same 10:1 ratio
1422 - Death of Henry V
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 29-31, "For the Victory at Agincourt" (1 text)
Stevick-100MEL 51, "(The Agincourt Carol)" (1 text)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 25-30, "The Song of Agincourt" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: ADDITIONAL: Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #90, pp. 156-156, "(Deo gracias, Anglia)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins, _Index of Middle English Verse_, #2716
Digital Index of Middle English Verse #4317
Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 62-65 (1 text, 1 tune with harmonization)
DT, AGINCRT1*
ST MEL51 (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164] (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Oh Wondrous Typr! Oh Vision Fair (English version of "Caelestis formam gloriae) (#80 in the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
For the Victory at Agincourt
NOTES: The Latin refrain means, "Thank God, England, for victory."
Henry V had a legitimate claim to the throne of France derived from his great-grandfather Edward III (whose mother had been a French princess). Under English law, he was rightful King of France (or would have been, were it not for the fact that Henry had cousins who were proper heirs to both the thrones of England and France. But that's another story).
The French, however, didn't want an English king, and eventually dredged up the "Salic Law" to prevent succession through the female line. Henry V's predecessors Richard II and the usurper Henry IV had been too busy to do anything about that, but Henry V had the leisure to invade France.
The invasion of 1415 was the first and most spectacular of Henry's campaigns. After taking Harfleur to give him a base in Normandy, he engaged in a great chevauchee (destructive raid in which he burned everything in his path).
The enraged French pursued, and even appeared at one point to have Henry trapped; he reportedly offered terms, which the French foolishly ignored (they thought ten to one odds in their favor were enough to win the day). Henry found a good position and waited for the French to show up. He then used his longbowmen to shatter their army. He proceeded to Calais to return his army to England and prepare his next campaign.
Henry reportedly forbade any musical odes to Agincourt, preferring to give credit to God. He got them anyway (though the clever author here never explicitly credits Henry).
For more historical background, see "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164].
This, the most famous Agincourt piece, appeared very shortly after the campaign. Two copies survive, the more important being MS. Selden B.26 (Bodlian library, with music); the other is at Cambridge, Trinity College O.3.58 (a manuscript containing several carols, most of them for Christmas and the New Year).
There is no evidence that this song ever entered oral tradition; it's almost unsingable. But the frequency with which it is quoted argues for its presence here.
Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Crispin's Day: The Glory of Agincourt, Little Brown, 1979, p. 191, suggests that the song is by John Lydgate -- but while Lydgate did write about Agincourt, there is no reason to think this is his work. Lydgate was a prolific writer, but he wasn't really very good. (For background, see the notes to "The London Lackpenny.") Juliet Barker, Agincourt,2005 (I use the 2007 Back Bay paperback edition), p. 361, suggests that this was "probably a production of Henry's own royal chapel or a religious house and has been preserved in ecclesiastical archives." She suggests that other Agincourt songs were written but are lost.
This song was designed for three voices (Barker, p. 360): two voices in unison singing the verses, with the opening line of the chorus sung by a single voice, then two voices in harmony for the second line, and the remainder sung with variations by all three voices.
A high-resolution digital image of the Selden Manuscript is now available on the Bodleian web site. Go to the Bodleian manuscripts page at http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-BodleianMSS and scroll to MS. Arch. Selden B. 26. It is on folio 17 verso. The manuscript is very fine, with black and red inks and and some blue initials. Sadly, the margins have been trimmed too closely, cutting off at least one marginal remark, but the main text is intact.- RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: MEL51

DESCRIPTION: Mary Ann Malone is a big, strong, agricultural Irish girl. At 17, she is not educated -- "doesn't speak Italian" -- but knows "all befits a lady." "She neither paints nor powders, and her figure is her own" She's aggressive. She will strike for her wages.
AUTHOR: J. F. Mitchell (words and music) (source: broadside, LOCSheet sm1885 05879)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1885 05879)
KEYWORDS: work humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-More 66, "The Agricultural Irish Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 244, "The Agricultural Irish Girl"
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1885 05879, "Mary Ann Malone The Agricultural Irish Girl," Chas. D. Blake (Boston), 1885 (tune)
NOTES: The sheet music version takes place in New York. As O Lochlainn suspects, "probably American" - BS
File: OLcM066

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis very well done, says Johnny Brown, Is this the way to London town? I'll stand you thus, I'll stand you by, Until you hear the watchman cry: A roop doop doop doop doodle doodle do, A roop doop doop doop doodle doodle do!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 448, "Ah Roop Doop Doop" (1 text)
Roud #7607
File: R448

DESCRIPTION: Javanese sea shanty. "Ah hoo-e, la-e, ah hoo-e, la-e, ah-e, hoo-e, ah hoo-e, la-e ung!" Used as a hauling and loading shanty, with the pull on the syllable "Ung."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Indonesia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harlow, p. 115, "Ah-Hoo-E-La-E" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 339, "Ah, Hoo-E La-E" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Harlow says he took it down from the coolies singing and can't vouch for the translation. - SL
Last updated in version 3.3
File: Harl115

See Ah-Hoo-E-La-E (File: Harl115)

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls to his horse Smiler how they had been laughed at by "yon muckle tearers frae Pitgair" before the ploughing match. "When the wark was a' inspeckit" they were best of sixty ploughs. He makes Smiler's bed and feeds him.
AUTHOR: John Sim (source: Greig #166, p. 2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: contest farming nonballad recitation horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #66, p. 2, ("Ah, Smiler lad, my trusty frien'") (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 425, "Ah, Smiler Lad" (1 text)
Roud #5942
NOTES: Greig: "... a ploughman's address to his horse when suppering him after a ploughing match. The match took place at Tyrie Mains about 1812, and the plouhgman in question was said to come from Rora. The piece is not a song, but it is so good and seasonable that we must try to find room for as much of it as possible." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3425

DESCRIPTION: French: The young woman wants a monk (the word also means a spinning top) to dance. She offers him a cap, a gown, etc., then a psalter; he apparently refuses each. She says she would offer him more, but he has taken a vow of poverty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: playparty clergy dancing foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 106-107, "Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 40, "Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser!" 1 English & 1 French text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 327, "Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser!" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Grace Lee Nute, _The Voyageur_, Appleton, 1931 (reprinted 1987 Minnesota Historical Society), pp. 136-138, "Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser" (1 text plus English translation, 1 tune)
Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 80-81, "Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser! (Come and Dance with Me!)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: FJ106

DESCRIPTION: Aiken Drum lives in the moon, plays with a ladle, dresses in food including breeches of haggis bags. Willy Wood lives in another town, plays on a razor, eats Aiken Drum's clothes but chokes on the haggis bags
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Crawfurd2)
KEYWORDS: clothes death food humorous talltale
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Lyle-Crawfurd2 164, "Aitken Drum" (1 text)
Opie-Oxford2 7, "There was a man lived in the moon, lived in the moon, lived in the moon" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #254, pp. 157-158, "(There was a man lived in the moon, lived in the moon, lived in the moon)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 97, "(There came a man to our town)" (1 short text)
Dolby, p. 25, "Aiken Drum" (1 text)
DT, AIKDRUM* AIKDRUM3*
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblines, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures_, 1976 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback), p. 2, article "Aiken Drum" (1 partial text plus extended discussion)
Roud #2571
NOTES: A haggis bag, I guess, would be a sheep's stomach lining. - BS
The dating on this song is a bit uncertain. The Opies apparently cite 1821 on the basis of Hogg's Jacobite Relics -- but that is the other "Aikendrum" ("Ken ye how a Whig can fight, aikendrum, aikendrum). It is generally claimed that the word "Aikendrum" in that song is derived from the character in this, which would of course make this older -- but I know of no proof of that assertion. Hogg does quote a snippet of what appears to be this song, but the whole thing is awfully thin. The Lyle-Crawfurd 1828 date is firmer. Briggs gives a firm date of 1878 for "Aiken Drum" as the name of a brownie mentioned by William Nicholson. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: OO2007

See Aikendrum (File: RcAikDr1)

DESCRIPTION: "Ken ye how a Whig can fight?" The ballad gives examples that Whigs can't fight, that Sunderland, who had sworn to clear the land, cannot be found. The song imagines "the Dutchmen" drowned, Jacobite victory, and King James crowned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg2)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Scotland humorous nonballad patriotic Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1694, "Aiken Drum" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hogg2 7, "Aikendrum" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, AIKNDRUM*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 41-42, "Aiken Drum" ("There cam a man to our town, to our town, to our town") (1 tune)
Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #101, p. 63, "Aiken Drum"
Roud #2571
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Aikendrum" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Jacobites By Name" (tune)
NOTES: Opie 7 quotes the first lines of this song noting that it is "a ballad about the opposing armies before the battle of Sheriffmuir (1715)." The Battle of Sheriffmuir took place November 13, 1715 between the Jacobites and Hanoverians. Told from the Jacobite viewpoint this song does not reflect the outcome of the battle. Both sides claimed victory in this biggest battle of the 1715 Jacobite uprising. - BS
The Digital Tradition lists this to the tune of "Captain Kidd." The two are related, I think, but Ewan MacColl's tune is shifted to minor and has other differences.
I suspect that the song may have been mistranscribed by Hogg. The first line was clearly heard as "Ken ye hoo a Whig can fight, Aikendrum, aikendrum." But "hoo" can be either "how" (as Hogg and the above description) or "who"; the latter makes more sense.
The song refers to "Sunderland," which on its face would appear to be Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland (1674-1722), a Whig politician who had been one of the leaders of the governments from 1706-1710, and who intrigued for high office under George I as well (OxfordCompanion, p. 900). In this period, though, he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and doing very little other than trying to get higher office out of George I.
I would point out, however, that Sunderland did, as the song claims, "vanish frae oor strand." He was forever trying to get George I's attention, and, according to Brumwell/Speck, p. 377, "His chance came when the king went to Hanover. Sunderland wend abroad ostensibly on health grounds, on to make a beeline for the royal presence."
Despite this, it is generally agreed that "Sunderland" is in fact "Sutherland," a Hannoverian general in Scotland who was responsible for guarding Scotland but who was outmanuevered by the Jacobite Sir Donald MacDonald.
Not that that Jacobite success did much good. John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675-1732), had been part of the government under Queen Anne, but was dismissed after George I took the throne in 1714. He finally cast his lot with the Jacobite forces, and commanded the rebels at Sheriffmuir, the great battle of the 1715 rebellion.
His opponent, the Duke of Argyll (1678-1743), was a genuine soldier, having served with distinction under Marlborough. He had also actively supported the Act of Union (Brumwell/Speck, p. 31). He was an obvious choice to command the Hanoverian forces in Scotland.
According to Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 53, Sheriffmuir took place on a "bitterly cold day." The Jacobites had an overwhelming numerical advantage (usually listed as on the order of 9000 men to Argyll's 3500 or so), but Mar had no idea what to do with his troops and the battle -- the only serious clash of the 1715 Jacobite rebellion -- was a tactical draw, with both armies gaining ground on the right and yielding it on the left (Mitchison, p. 323). Mar, still possessed of his big numerical advantage, didn't even try to hold the field. He proceeded to wander around Scotland for a while, then fled into exile with the Old Pretender James (III).
As for James himself, he hadn't made it to Scotland at the time, and Susan Maclean Kybett (who is, to be sure, rather an anti-Stuart biographer) "wonders why James came to Scotland at all" (p. 16). She also notes that James came to be called "Old Mr. Melancholy" (which fits), adding that his presence largely quelled what enthusiasm for rebellion there remained.
I have never seen an explanation for the "Aikendrum" chorus. Alexander, p. 2, explains the name in a way somewhat reminiscent of J. K. Rowling and her "house elves": "AIKEN DRUM: A Scottish Brownie who lived in Galloway. Aiken Drum would clear up kitchen and complete any work left unfinished by members of the households he visited. In appearance he was unmistakable, as he wore only a kilt woven from rushes, yet if a grateful mortal left clothes out for him in appreciation of his nocturnal efforts, then he would leave the house, never to return.
Katherine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblines, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, 1976 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback), p. 2, gives a firm date of 1878 for "Aiken Drum" as the name of a brownie mentioned by William Nicholson. - RBW
Hogg2 credits Sir Walter Scott as provider of the clue that "Sunderland should have been written Sutherland... [The song] refers to the state of the Jacobite and Whig armies immediately previous to the battle of Sheriffmuir [November 13, 1715], and must have been a song of that period." Hogg then has the verse beginning "Donald's running round and round" refer to "Sir Donald MacDonald [who] came down from Sky[e], with 700 hardy islanders in his train; on which ... they chased Lord Sutherland's men to the hills." He has the verse beginning "Did you hear of Robin Roe" refer to Sir Robert Monroe "who was joined with Sutherland at that period." - BS
Bibliography

• Alexander: Marc Alexander, A Companion to the Folklore, Myths & Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing, 2002
• Brumwell/Speck: Stephen Brumwell and W. A. Speck, Cassell's Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain, Cassell & Co., 2001
• Kybett: Susan Maclean Kybett, Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography of Charles Edward Stuart, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1988
• Mitchison: Rosalind Mitchison, A History of Scotland, second edition, Methuen, 1982
• OxfordCompanion: John Cannon, editor, The Oxford Companion to British History, Oxford, 1997
• Sinclair-Stevenson: Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, Blood Royal: The Illustrious House of Hannover, Doubleday, 1979, 1980

See references under Fortune My Foe (Aim Not Too High) (File: ChWI076)

DESCRIPTION: Aimee McPherson, radio evangelist, vanishes after a camp meeting; later claiming she was kidnapped. A grand jury investigation uncovers a "love-nest" at Carmel-by-the-Sea. She's jailed and bailed out; her paramour vanishes.
AUTHOR: Words: Unknown/Music: Cab Calloway
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Pete Seeger)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Aimee McPherson, radio evangelist, vanishes after a camp meeting; upon returning, she claims she was kidnapped. A grand jury investigation uncovers a "love-nest" at Carmel-by-the-Sea, where "the dents in the mattress fitted Aimee's caboose." She's jailed and bailed out; her paramour vanishes. Last lines: "If you don't get the moral then you're the gal for me/'Cause there's still a lot of cottages down at Carmel-by-the-Sea"
KEYWORDS: sex abduction bawdy humorous clergy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1926 - The "disappearance" of Aimee Semple MacPherson
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 189, "Aimee McPherson" (1 text)
DT, AIMEEMC*
Roud #10296
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Aimee McPherson" (on PeteSeeger39)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hi-De-Ho Man" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Aimee Semple McPherson
The Ballad of Aimee McPherson
NOTES: The song tells the story pretty accurately. - PJS
Aimee Semple MacPherson (1890-1944) was truly larger than life. Born Aimee Kennedy, she married Robert Semple in 1908; he died in China on missionary work in 1910. In 1912 she married Harold MacPherson, whom she divorced in 1921. In 1918, she founded the Foursquare Gospel church (a Pentecostal sect which still exists, though it's not overly large). 1926 saw her disappearance. A third marriage failed in 1931. She died in 1944, of a heart attack or drug overdose. - RBW
File: FSWB189A

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

See Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos (File: LxA058)

See Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos (File: LxA058)

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't' God good to Iowa? Folks, a feller never knows Just how near he is to Eden, Till some time he up and goes." "Other spots may look as fair, But they lack that soothin' something' In the hawkeye sky and air." "Ain't God good to... AIn't he though?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AFS2, pp. 476-477, "Ain't God Good to Iowa?" (1 text)
File: CAFS2476

See Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More (File: R300)

See Ain't Gonna Rain No More (File: R557)

DESCRIPTION: "Hypocrite, hypocrite, God despise, His tongue so sharp he will tell lies (x2), Ain't gwine grieve my God no more." "Let me tell you what the hypocrite will do." The singer describes the troubles of life and says that he will triumph over them and Satan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Journal of American Folklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Devil floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 72-74, "Ain't Gwine Grieve My God No More" (1 text)
Roud #8903
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't Gwine Grieve My Lord No More" (lyrics, idea)
cf. "Talking Blues" (lyrics)
File: CoCo072

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more...." Verses give conditions for getting into heaven, e.g. "You can't get to Heaven on roller skates, You'll roll right by them pearly gates." Instructs the listener to help the singer get to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious clergy
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 300, "Oh You Caint Go to Heaven" (1 text)
BrownIII 549, "Ain't Goin' to Worry My Lord No More" (1 text, perhaps somewhat adapted (e.g. the second verse is "If you get there before I do... Punch a little hole and pull me through"), but too short and too similar to this to separate)
Silber-FSWB, p. 22, "Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 82-84, "I Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More" (1 text, 1 tune -- probably composite, though the conflation may be the work of the informant rather than the Pankakes)
DT, GRIEVLD
Roud #12801
RECORDINGS:
Commonwealth Quartet, "I Ain't Gonna Grieve" (Conqueror 7079, 1928)
Walter "Kid" Smith & Norman Woodlief with Posey Rorer, "I Ain't Gonna' Grieve My Lord Anymore" (Champion 15812 [as by Jim Taylor and Bill Shelby]/Supertone 9494 [as by Jordan & Rupert]/Conqueror 7277, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't Gwine Grieve My God No More" (lyrics, idea)
File: R300

See Keep On a-Walking (Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round) (File: SBoA374)

DESCRIPTION: Verses held together by the refrain, "It ain't gonna rain no more." (Either between lines or as a standalone chorus). Examples: "What did the blackbird say to the crow? It ain't gonna...." "We had a cat down on our farm; it ate a ball of yarn...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Randolph 557, "Ain't Going to Rain No More" (1 short text, 1 tune); also perhaps 275, "The Crow Song" (the "D" fragment might be this piece)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 409-410, "Ain't Going to Rain No More" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 557)
BrownIII 430, "Ain't Gonna Rain No More" (5 short texts)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 107, "'Tain't Gwine Rain No Mo'" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 108 (no title) (1 text; the chorus at least goes here though the verses may be from a rabbit-hunting song)
Sandburg, p. 141, "Ain't Gonna Rain" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman, pp. 102-103, "'T Aint Gwine Rain No Mo'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 212-213, "T'ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-WFM, p. 307, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'"
DT, AINTRAIN
Roud #7657
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Puritan 11305, 1923)
[Al] Bernard & [Frank] Ferera, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Cameo 487, 1924)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (OKeh 40204, 1924)
Ed Clifford [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart], "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Bell P-279, 1924)
Wendell Hall, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Victor 19171, 1923) (Edison 51261, 1923) (Gennett 5271, 1923) (CYL: Edison [BA] 4824, n.d.)
Ernest Hare, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (OKeh 40140, 1924)
[Billy] Jones & [Ernest] Hare "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Columbia 87-D, 1924) (Edison 51430, 1924) (CYL: Edison [BA] 4935 [as "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More"], n.d.).
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Columbia 15447-D, 1929; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Tune Wranglers, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Bluebird B-7272, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (tune, structure)
cf. "Ain't Got to Cry No More"
cf. "The States Song (What Did Delaware?)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The States Song (What Did Delaware?) (File: CAFS1162)
Tenor solo, "The Klansman and the Rain" (Special K-3, rec. c. 1924)
W. R. Rhinehart, "Klucker and the Rain" (100% K-30, rec. 1924)
NOTES: A popular version of this piece was published in 1923 as by Wendell W. Hall. Even the cover, however, admits that it was an "old southern melody" -- and since we have traditional versions at least from 1925, there is little doubt that the song is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: R557

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't got no place to rest my head, Oh baby..." "Steamboat done put me out of doors..." "Steamboat done left me and gone." "Don't know what in this world I'm going to do." "Sweetheart's done quit me and he's gone." "Out on the cold frozen ground"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: river work unemployment home separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MWheeler, pp. 80-81, "Ain't Got No Place to Lay My Head" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10027
File: MWhee080

DESCRIPTION: "AInt got to cry no more (x2), Blackberries growin' round mah cabin door; Ain't got to cy no more." "I ain't got to cry no more... Pickaninnies rollin' on mah cabin door (sic.)." "Ain't got to cry no more... Possum gittin' fat behin' my cabin door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 431, "Ain't Got to Cry No More" (1 text)
Roud #11774
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't Gonna Rain No More"
File: Br3431

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't gwin to work no more, Labor is tiresome shore, Best occupation am recreation, Life's mighty short, you know.... Peter won't know if you're rich or poor, So I ain't gwin to work no more." The singer asserts they need not worry about the future
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work money
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 234, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScNF234A

See It's A Shame to Whip Your Wife on Sunday (File: CSW078)

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense with chorus: "Boom, boom, ain't it great to be crazy (x2), (Silly and foolish) all day long, Boom, boom...." Example: Way down where the bananas grow, A flea stepped on an elephant's toe... Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988
KEYWORDS: nonsense humorous animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 192, "Ain't It Great to Be Crazy" (1 text)
DT, GRTCRAZY*
Roud #15691
File: DTgrtcra

See Hard to Be a Nigger (File: LxA233)

See Hard to Be a Nigger (File: LxA233)

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense and topical verses; "The night was dark and drizzly/The air was full of sleet/The old man joined the Ku Klux/And Ma she lost her sheet"; Chorus: "There ain't no bugs on me (x2)/There may be bugs on some of you mugs/But there ain't no bugs on me."
AUTHOR: assembled by Fiddlin' John Carson
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Nonsense and topical verses; "The night was dark and drizzly/The air was full of sleet/The old man joined the Ku Klux/And Ma she lost her sheet"; "Billy Sunday is a preacher/His church is always full/For the neighbors gather from miles around/To hear him shoot the bull"; "The monkey swings by the end of his tail/And jumps from tree to tree/There may be monkey in some of you guys/But there ain't no monkey in me." Chorus: "There ain't no bugs on me (2x)/There may be bugs on some of you mugs/But there ain't no bugs on me."
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 226, "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 244, "There Ain't No Bugs On Me" (1 text)
DT, AINTNOBG*
Roud #17569
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (OKeh 45259, 1928)
Fiddlin' John Carson & Moonshine Kate, "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (Bluebird 5652, 1934)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (on NLCR06) (NLCR16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (tune, structure)
cf. "Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel" (words)
cf. "The Barefoot Boy with Boots On" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan attained great influence in the Southeast and Midwest; it took a certain courage to make fun of them in public. Also in the 1920s, the Scopes trial turned Darwinian biology into a courtroom circus; Carson vents anti-evolution sentiments in the "monkey" verse. And Billy Sunday was a popular evangelist of the time. - PJS
This seems to be a modification of "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," with topical and floating verses inserted by Carson. The resulting song may have gone into oral tradition due to its use in camps.
Incidentally (and not too surprisingly, considering), the bit about humans and monkeys is wrong. While neo-Darwinism does posit that humans are descended from apes, and from monkey-like creatures before that, we are not descended from any living ape species, nor indeed any living monkey. Rather, humans are descended from a sort of proto-ape, which was descended from a proto-primate somewhat like a monkey. According to Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale, Mariner, 2004, p. 137, the last monkeys split from the ape lineage about 25 million years ago, and the earliest split from monkeys was some 40 million years ago (p. 141). The oldest surviving monkey species that still exist are thought to be some 15 million years old. Thus there are a total of some 35 million years of evolution separating us from the existing monkey most closely related to humans. Note that apes aren't monkeys either. Not that that would satisfy an I-don't-do-science type.... - RBW
File: CSW226

DESCRIPTION: Singer has heard of a city with streets of gold. He has found a throne of grace. Jesus, on the cross, tells his disciples to take his mother home. Cho: "When the high trumpet sounds/I'll be getting up, walking around/Ain't no grave can hold my body down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (recording, Bozie Sturdivant)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer has heard of a beautiful city -- heaven -- with streets paved with gold. He has found a throne of grace, "it will 'point my soul a place." Jesus, hanging on the cross, hears Mary moan. He tells his disciples to take his mother home; singer laments the crucifixion of Jesus. Ch.: "When the high trumpet sounds/I'll be getting up, walking around/Ain't no grave can hold my body down"
KEYWORDS: death dying Bible religious mother Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #12182
RECORDINGS:
Caudill Family, "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down" (Champion 902, n.d.)
Brother Claude Ely, "There Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold This Body Down" (King 1311, 1954) [he may have also recorded it in 1947]
Bozie Sturdivant, "Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down" (AFS 6639 B1, 1942; on LC10, LCTreas)
NOTES: This is very close to being a nonballad, but there's just enough narrative in the second verse for it to squeak in. It's also one of the masterpieces of the human spirit. - PJS
The reference to the (beloved) disciple caring for Mary mother of Jesus is to John 19:26-27, "When Jesus saw his mother... he said to the [beloved] disciple, 'See! Your mother.' And from then on the disciple took her to his own home." - RBW
File: RcANGCHM

DESCRIPTION: The singer remarks, "There ain't no more cane on this Brazos, oh-oh-oh; They done ground it all down to molasses, oh-oh-oh." He describes the dreadful conditions faced by the prisoners and wishes he could escape such horrors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (field recording)
KEYWORDS: prison abuse punishment death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Scott-BoA, pp. 305-306, "No More Cane on this Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 92, "Ain't No Mo' Cane on dis Brazis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 58-59, "Ain' No Mo' Cane on de Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 144, "No More Cane on This Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 132-133, (no title) (1 text, heavily modified to produce a blues feel)
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 77-75, "Should A Been on the River in 1910" (1 text, 1 tune; the first verse, about driving women and men alive, is from this song or "Go Down, Old Hannah", but the remainder is a separate piece); pp. 130-132, "No More Cane on the Brazos/Godamighty" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixture of this with another song Jackson calls "Godamighty" though it has almost no lyric elements in common with "Godalmighty Drag")
Darling-NAS, pp. 326-327, "No More Can on this Brazos" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 65, "Ain't No More Can On This Brazos" (1 text)
DT, CANEBRAZ*
Roud #10063
RECORDINGS:
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Ain' No More Cane on the Brazos" (AFS 2643 B1, 1939)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go Down, Old Hannah"
cf. "Oughta Come on the River"
cf. "Should A Been on the River in 1910" (lyrics)
NOTES: The amount of common material in this song and "Go Down, Old Hannah" makes it certain they have cross-fertilized. They may be descendants of a common ancestor. But the stanzaic forms are different, so I list them separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LxA058

See Ain't No Use Workin' So Hard (File: DarNS329)

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't no use of my workin' so hard, darlin' (x2), I got a gal in the (rich/white) folks' yard, She kill me a chicken, She bring me the wing, Ain't I livin' on an easy thing..." "She thinks I'm workin', I'm layin' in bed...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Colcord, p. 185, "In De Mornin'" (1 short text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 478, "You Shall Be Free" (1 text, with three verses of this plus one apparent floater and the "Oh, nigger, you shall be free" chorus)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 235, "Ain't No Use O' My Workin' So Hard" (1 text, 1 tune; also as a floating verse in the song preceding this one; see also the fragment following) also p. 236, (no title) (1 fragment)
Darling-NAS, pp. 328-329, "Ain't No Use Workin' So Hard" (1 text);
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Tar Heels, "There Ain't No Use Working So Hard" (Victor 20544, 1927; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sugar Babe (III)" (lyrics)
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (lyrics)
cf. "Dat's All Right" (lyrics)
cf. "Tell Old Bill" (structure, refrain)
cf. "Cocaine (The Furniture Man)" (lyrics)
NOTES: This is a floating fragment which often joins songs such as the "Talking Blues," "You Shall Be Free," and perhaps "Raise a Ruckus." But it's here because it apparently exists on its own also. - RBW
Yep -- see the Carolina Tar Heels' recording, for one example. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: DarNS329

DESCRIPTION: "Eighteen hundred and ninety-one, Fore I workses, I'd rather be hung." "1892... Me and old worksy, we done been through." And so on, with complaints about work until 1899, concluding, "Because I never liked to work-a nohow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Charley Campbell)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-Singing, pp. 289-390, "Ain't Workin' Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15585
File: LxSi289

See The Blood Done Signed My Name (File: BSoF760)

See Eence Upon a Time (Had I the Wyte) (File: GrD71399)

DESCRIPTION: "A is for those Air Force boys, with hearts so brave and true ... Z is for ... Of all the letters in my song the one that beats them all Is V for Victory, the letter that won't let the old flag fall"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-Labrador)
KEYWORDS: nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-Labrador 67, "Air Force Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #159
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
NOTES: Leach-Labrador: "composed in the Canadian Air Force during World War II." - BS
File: LLab067

See The Bonnie House o Airlie [Child 199] (File: C199)

See The Bonnie House o Airlie [Child 199] (File: C199)

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns all bachelors against his mistake. He wanders into town and meets a sergeant, who asks him to enlist. At first he refuses, but the soldier wears him down; at last he accepts. He bids farewell to home, family, and girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(816))
KEYWORDS: soldier drink separation bachelor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
SHenry H586, p. 80, "The Black Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 17, "The Black Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 8, "The Black Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 58-60, "The Airy Bachelor" (1 text)
Roud #3027
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(816), "The Black Horse," T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also 2806 b.9(231), 2806 c.8(141), Harding B 19(8), 2806 c.15(181), 2806 c.8(276), 2806 b.11(12)[some words missing], Harding B 26(60)[lines missing], "The Black Horse"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cashelnagleanna" (tune)
NOTES: Sam Henry gives a brief history of the Black Horse, the regiment named in the song, which was raised in 1688 as the Earl of Devonshire's Horse. Henry reports that it fought at the Boyne, though this is not listed among its battle honours.
It was formally recognized for its part at Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, Dettingen, Warburg, various colonial affairs, and finally the First World War, where it fought from 1914 to 1918 (including the Somme and Cambrai). The regiment became the Princess Royal's Own (7th Dragoon Guards) in 1788. The regiment's separate history ended in 1922 when it was combined with the 4th Royal Dragoon Guards; the unit is now the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, and no longer has the Princess Royal as its honorary colonel. - RBW
File: HHH586

DESCRIPTION: Slovak. "Aja lejber man, robim kazdi den." "I'm a labor man, I work every day." He tries to keep track of what he is saving. He buys drinks for everyone on payday. He gets a letter from his old home, and sends his wife a hundred dollars
AUTHOR: Andrew Kovaly
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Korson-PennLegends); probably written by 1910
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage emigration home money drink wife
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennLegends, pp. 435-436, "Aja Lejber Man (I'm a Labor Man)" (1 Slovak text with non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL435

See The Wreck at Maud (Al Bowen) (File: LSRa272H)

See John Cherokee (File: Hugi439)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the boat's up the river And the tide's gone down; I believe to my soul She's (Alabama/water) bound." Lovers are reunited by boat and train, Alabama bound. The Arctic explorer Cook is also mentioned as being Alabama bound to escape the cold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (sung by Tom Gregory, according to Coleman/Bregman)
KEYWORDS: home return love separation floatingverses
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1776-1779 - Third and last exploratory voyage of Captain Cook, which in 1778 explored the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia and Alaska
1908 - Dr. Frederick Cook claims to reach the North Pole
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 598, "Alabama Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
MWheeler, pp. 27-28, "I'm the Man That Kin Raise So Long" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 53, "Ferd Harold Blues" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 113-114, "Big Boat's Up the Rivuh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 236, (no title) (1 text, which appears more a collection of blues stanzas than an actual song, but verses from songs such as "Boat's Up the River" and "I Got a Gal in de White Folks' Yard")
Coleman/Bregman, pp. 62-63, "ALabama Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur "Brother-in-Law" Armstrong, "The Boat's Up the River" (AFS 3979 B3, 1940)
Delmore Brothers, "I'm Alabama Bound" (Bluebird B-8264, 1939)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Boat's Up the River" (on Holcomb1, HolcombCD1)
Charlie Jackson, "I'm Alabama Bound" (Paramount 12289, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Train That Carried My Girl from Town" (floating verses)
NOTES: Not to be confused with the Lead Belly song "Alabama Bound." - RBW
I assign the Holcomb recording to "Alabama Bound (I)" reluctantly, and for want of a better place to put it. He sings the same first verse (with "waterbound" rather than "Alabama bound"); the rest of the song is composed of floating blues verses. - PJS
That seems to be pretty typical, actually. This isn't so much a song as a first verse, a tune, and a bluesy feel. Wheeler's three assorted texts are examples of the same phenomenon, and Scarborough's has the one verse and four other unrelated blues verses. - RBW
There is also a popular song, "Alabamy Bound," with words and music by Bud De Sylva, Bud Green, and Ray Henderson, published in 1925. As far as I can determine, it's not related to this song. - PJS
There is an interesting problem here in figuring out who is meant by the reference to the Arctic explorer Cook. The Botkin text, from Coleman and Bregman, reads
Doctuh Cook's in town,
Doctuh Cook's in town,
He foun' de No'th Pole so doggone cole
He's Alabama boun'.
This version comes from a book copyright 1942.
But there are two Cooks who explored the Arctic. Admittedly only one was entitled to be called "Doctor," but in the time of the first Cook, the term was used rather more loosely.
Captain James Cook (1728-1779) explored the Labrador and Newfoundland areas in the 1760s, and the Alaskan and Siberian coasts on his last voyage (1776-1779) -- though of course never came anywhere near the North Pole; he only briefly made it above 70 degrees north. Still, his penetration of the Bering Strait in 1778 brought him north of the Arctic Circle and opened the way for exploration of Alaska's North Shore; it was the "Farthest North" in that part of the world for many years, and it would be half a century before anyone made it much north of that mark in any part of the world. Thus it is reasonable to refer to Cook as at leasts approaching the North Pole.
Cook had aslo explored the Antarctic on his previous voyage (1772-1775); that probably brought back more useful information than the third voyage. It wasn't the Arctic, of course, but it was at least as cold. And he lived through it.
On the other hand, Dr. Frederick Cook (who was in fact a medical doctor) made several visits to the Arctic, and in 1908 claimed that he and two Eskimos had reached the North Pole. His claim was subjected to much question (see the notes to "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay"), and is probably to be rejected. He nonetheless ended up as something of a nine day wonder; we have to guess whether his brief fame, or Captain Cook's enduring fame, is more likely to have inspired this song. This would obviously be easier if we had more and better texts of the relevant verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BMRF598

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Alabama bound, I'm Alabama bound/And if the train don't stop and turn around/I'm Alabama bound"; "Don't you leave me here... If you must go... leave me a dime for beer"; "Don't you be like me... You can drink... sherry wine and let the whiskey be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax), but elements at least were part of the 1925 Trixie Smith recording
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses train travel drink abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 206-209, "Alabama-Bound" (1 text, 1 tune, probably composite)
MWheeler, pp. 54-55, "I'm Alabama Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 237, "If the Seaboard Train Wrecks I Got a Mule to Ride" (1 4-line text with lyrics seemingly from three different songs, but filed here because of the final line)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 213-214, "Shine Reel" (1 fragment, 1 tune, mentioning being "Alabama Bound" but also mentioning some being on a boat that sank, so it might be part of "Shine and the Titanic")
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 450-451, "Railroad Blues (I)" (1 text, 1 tune, which Cohen apparently considers a separate song by Trixie Smith, but her song seems to have no independent circulation and shares enough lyrics with this piece that I file it here, particularly since the change in tune might be due to the jazz arrangement)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 44 "Alabama Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 47, "Alabama Bound" (1 text)
DT, ALABOUND*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 75, "Alabama Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10017
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Alabama Bound" (on PeteSeeger18) (on PeteSeeger22) (on PeteSeeger43)
Trixie Smith, "Railroad Blues" (Paramount 12262, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Leave Me Here" (lyrics)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "Alabama Bound (I)." - PJS
Norm Cohen tells Paul Stamler that "Don't You Leave Me Here," a song sung by Jelly Roll Morton, not only shares lyrics with but is a version of this song. In the absence of a definitely traditional version of the latter, we leave the question open. - (PJS, RBW)
There is also a popular song, "Alabamy Bound," with words and music by Bud De Sylva, Bud Green, and Ray Henderson, published in 1925. As far as I can determine, it's not related to this song. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.1
File: PSAFB044

DESCRIPTION: A man on the levee warns that a flood is coming. A few are killed; those who have lost loved ones and homes mourn. The singer asks for a helping hand. Ch.: "Down in Alabama/In the water and the mud/Many poor souls are homeless from the Alabama flood"
AUTHOR: listed as "Waite" on some recordings
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart & Andrew Jenkins)
KEYWORDS: grief death river disaster flood
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb.-March 1929: Heavy rains cause floods in Alabama that leave 15,000 homeless
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Alabama Flood" (Columbia 15386-D/Harmony 879-H [as Mack Allen], 1929)
Blind Andy [pseud. for Andrew Jenkins], "Alabama Flood" (OKeh 45319, 1929)
Frank Luther, "The Alabama Flood" (Banner 6369/Conqueror 7346/Challenge 812, 1929)
NOTES: It is a measure of how quickly the music industry operated that the Alabama flood of 1929 reached the peak of its damage on March 15; on March 21 Andy Jenkins and Vernon Dalhart were in the studios recording a song about it, and within a few weeks the records were on sale. - PJS
File: RcAlaFl

See John Cherokee (File: Hugi439)

See Roll, Alabama, Roll (File: Doe035)

See The Murder of Alan Beyne (File: MA243)

See The Murder of Alan Beyne (File: MA243)

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Aulton college; at a wedding, he and Sally Allen go off into the broom. Her father demands his expulsion; the Regent grants it. The singer joins the navy, and bids farewell to Aulton, vowing that if he ever returns he will marry Sally
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1894 (Murison collection, according to Lyle, _Fairies and Folk_)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction sex travel ship father lover
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig #179, p. 3, "Allan MacLean"; Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 41, "Allan Maclean" (1 texts plus1 fragment)
GreigDuncan7 1403, "Allan MacLean" (19 texts plus a single verse on p. 519 and another on p. 20, 12 tunes)
MacSeegTrav 82, "Alan Maclean" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 184-185, "Allan Maclean" or "The Aulton College Hall"
Roud #2511
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Minister's Son
The Four Students
Sally Allen
Sally Munro
The Wedding at Westfield
NOTES: Greig: "Few folk-songs are more popular in the North-East than 'Allan Maclean' .... Dean Christie [GreigDuncan7: Traditional Ballad Airs 1876-1881] takes the incident to have happened about the middle of the 18th century; but there seems to be no mention of it in the records of King's College."
GreigDuncan7 includes a note from Christie, p. 184., quoting an unnamed source, deducing that "the expulsion, therefore, must have taken place about 1758 or 1760." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: McCST082

DESCRIPTION: Claims that Nantucket skippers were able to tell where their ships are by tasting the sounding lead. A sailor plays a trick by running the lead through a box of parsnips; the skipper thinks that Nantucket has sunk and they're sailing over a garden.
AUTHOR: James Thomas Fields
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (_Scientific American_)
KEYWORDS: talltale ship trick gardening humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harlow, pp. 192-194, "The Nantucket Skipper" (1 text)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 198-199, "The Nantucket Skipper" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Scientific American, volume 1, number 4 (1845), "The Ballad of the Alarmed Skipper" (1 text)
Roud #9172
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ballad of the Alarmed Skipper
NOTES: Definitely not a folk song; it's included in a couple of song collections as a gag. But it is a popular poem; Granger's Index to Poetry lists the piece in three anthologies apart from Shay, and I have seen it in at least two other books besides those four. - RBW
File: ShaSS198

See Led I the Dance a Midsummer's Day (Jack and the Dancing Maid) (File: GrEE096)

DESCRIPTION: "Alas and did my savior bleed, And did my Sovereign die, Would he devote that sacred head For such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree?" The singer lists the faults of humanity and says how great is his debt to Christ
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748) / Tune: Hugh WIlson (Source: cyberhymnal.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High); words reportedly written 1707
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High, p. 4, "Did My Savior Bleed" (1 text)
Roud #15070
File: High004

See Hell in Texas (File: R196)

See Sault Ste. Marie Jail, The (The Albany Jail) (File: FSC168)

See Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low (File: BMRF576)

See Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)

DESCRIPTION: Alberta is asked to let her hair hang low, to say what's on her mind, and not to treat the singer unkind. AABA verses: "Alberta, let your hair hang low (x2), I'll give you more gold than your apron will hold, If you'll just let your hair hang low."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: love hair nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 76-77, "Roberta" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly this song though it is the moan of a prisoner dreaming of escape so he can see his girl)
Botkin-MRFolklr, p. 576, "Alberta, Let Yo' Hair Hang Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
MWheeler, pp. 85-87, "Alberta, Let Yo' Hair Hang Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 74, ""Alberta (1 text)
DT, ALBRTA
Roud #10030
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It Makes a Long-Time Man Feel Bad" (lyrics)
File: BMRF576

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Albertina says the story, Albertina's all for glory, Albertina that was the schooner's name, Pump 'er dry." Verses describe loading the ship, sailing away, getting stranded and sinking. Last verse has a maiden weeping for her lost lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: shanty ship wreck
FOUND IN: Scandinavia Britain Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill, pp. 327-330, "Albertina" (3 texts [English and Swedish], 2 tunes) [AbrEd pp. 245-246]
DT, ALBRTINA
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Skonnert Albertina
NOTES: Norwegian origin, migrated and translated into Swedish, German, English (at least). - SL
File: Hugi327

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

See The Alderman's Lady (File: Pea783)

DESCRIPTION: Singer says he used to be a street laborer, but he's come up in the world: he's now alderman of the ward and his daughter's well-dressed, to boot. He brags of the trappings of his improved situation and invites the listener to be his guest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Warde Ford)
KEYWORDS: pride work political children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #15471
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Alderman of the ward" (AFS 4209 A3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES: We have no keyword for "politician"!
Irish immigrant politicians controlled many city machines in the 1800s and 1900s. - PJS
File: RcAotW

DESCRIPTION: An elderman promises a girl gifts in exchange for her love. She rejects him because he might reject her and their baby. He promises that he would take her to her mother and smother the baby. She refuses and he marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-Sharp)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves-Sharp 2, "An Alderman's Lady" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 783-784, "The Elderman's Lady" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 524, "Alderman and His Servant" (1 text)
Roud #2533
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Elderman's Lady" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Charlotte Decker, "The Elderman's Lady" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES: Peacock points out that "elderman" may be "alderman" [so, in fact, several British versions - RBW] and that "in former times aldermen had much higher rank than they do nowadays and were often governors of whole districts or members of nobility." - BS
To back this up, "alderman" is derived from Old English "ealdorman," not related to Old English eorl="earl" but often confused with it; an ealdorman was a local governor or viceroy. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea783

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

See The Ale-Wife and Her Barrel (File: McCST110)

DESCRIPTION: Singer's wife is an ale-seller and drunkard. She goes to market with her barrel; all know that he can't keep her out among men. Chorus: "The ale-wife, the drunken wife/The ale-wife she deaves me/My wifie wi' her barrelie/She'll ruin and she'll leave me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: marriage abandonment commerce drink nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
MacSeegTrav 110, "The Ale-Wife and her Barrel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #12, p. 3, ("The ale-wife an' her barrelies") (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 555, "The Ale-Wife" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 190-191, "The Ale-Wife and her Barrel" (1 tune)
Roud #6031
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ale-Wife, the Drunken Wife
NOTES: Despite its long history, this song does not seem to have spread outside Aberdeenshire. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: McCST110

See The Ale-Wife and Her Barrel (File: McCST110)

DESCRIPTION: Arthur Nolan rides his horse Sulphide in the Sydney Steeplechase. The horse stumbles; Nolan is thrown off and trampled to death. Various people grieve and regret what happened.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: death horse family mother racing grief
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 65-66, "Arthur Nolan"; 150, "The Death of Alec Robertson" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 220-221, "The Death of Alec Robertson" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Donald Campbell" (theme)
cf. "Tom Corrigan (theme)
cf. "The Death of Alec Robertson" (theme)
cf. "Alec Robertson (II)" (theme)
NOTES: The fullest text of this song seems to be the one Meredith and Anderson call "Arthur Nolan." However, there are two other variants which refer to the jockey as Alec Robertson, so it seems appropriate to give the song that title.
The characteristic feature of this song, and the one that connects the Arthur Nolan and Alec Robertson texts, is the reference to the jockey's mother: "Poor lad, his mother was not there To bid him last goodbye, But his stable-mate stood near With sad tears in his eye." - RBW
File: MA065

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the hobby of Australian boys Is jockeying to be, To mount a horse and scale the course No danger do they see." The usual story: Robertson races, is thrown from his horse, bids farewell to all, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: horse racing death mother
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson, p. 146, "The Jockey's Lament"; p. 151, "Alec Robertson" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Donald Campbell" (theme)
cf. "Tom Corrigan (theme)
cf. "The Death of Alec Robertson" (theme)
cf. "Alec Robertson (I)" (theme)
File: MA146

DESCRIPTION: ".. ye jolly bootleggers and you who handle brew: Beware of Howard Foley." Tignish was a town for fun but with Foley as policeman and Albert Knox as jail-keeper it's no place for a drinker. "I'll have to leave the village and go to some foreign land"
AUTHOR: Alec Shea
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: prison drink humorous police emigration home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DullCare, pp. 217, 241, "Alec's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14001
NOTES: Ives-DullCare: "The song was written about 1960, and it adds to the fun to know that at that time the Tignish jail was nothing more than a tiny renovated shoemaker's shop."
Tignish is near the north west corner of Prince County, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: IvDC217

DESCRIPTION: Alert completes its outward course. Homeward bound, on passing through Gibraltar they meet fog and storm. The crew pray on deck and shake hands; the ship sinks. Captain Butler and his crew are mourned by wives and orphans in Wexford town.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 21, 1839: "The Alert was lost of Wexford.... The crew were lost" homeward bound from Galatz (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v3, p. 54; Ranson)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson, pp. 65-67, "The Alert" (1 text)
File: Ran066

DESCRIPTION: To the tune "Kelvingrove" ("The Shearin's Nae for You"), "Will ye come to Alford Vale, bonnie lassie O? Where tis sunny as thyself, Bonnie lassie O." The singer tries to lure the girl from the town with praises of the beautiful vale
AUTHOR: Words: La Teste, adapted by John Ord
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord, pp. 84-85, "Alford Vale" (1 text)
Roud #3954
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shearin's Nae for You" (tune)
NOTES: Although this is one of the few pieces Ord admits to retouching, he gives no clue as to why he thought it worthy of such attention. Or of inclusion in his work. - RBW
File: Ord084

DESCRIPTION: Alfred D Snow is bound from San Francisco to Liverpool with a cargo of grain. The ship breaks up on the sand. Captain Willie signals hoping for help from Dunmore. The lifeguards and the Dauntless arrive too late. Only seven bodies are recovered.
AUTHOR: Michael O'Brien "the famous ballad-maker" (Ranson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 1, 1888 - "The Alfred D Snow ... was driven ashore on sandbanks at Broomhill.... Captain Willie and 24 crew were drowned." "... the tug Dauntless approached within half a mile but could get no closer. The Dunmore lifeboat crew refused to launch...." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 74, v3, p.66)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson, pp. 116-117, "The Alfred D Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Orphan Girl (III)" (tune)
File: Ran116

DESCRIPTION: French capstan shanty. "Ali alo pour Mascher! Ali, alo, alo... Il mang'la viande et nous donn les os. Ali, ali, ali, alo." Translation of the very short verses "He eats the meat and we get the bones," "He drinks the vine and we get the water," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, p. 485, "Ali Alo" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf: "Hullabaloo Belay" (similar tune and chorus)
File: Hugi485

See Ella Speed (Bill Martin and Ella Speed) [Laws I6] (File: LI06)

DESCRIPTION: Alison invites Willie to her wedding. He will not come except as the groom. She tells him that if he leaves, she will ignore him forever. He sets out slowly and sadly, sees an omen, and dies for love. A letter arrives, halting the wedding. Alison too dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c, 1818 (GlenbuchatBallads)
KEYWORDS: love wedding separation death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 256, "Alison and Willie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's [#1]}
Bronson 256, "Alison and Willie" (1 version)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 54-55, "Hynde Chiel" (1 text, substantially different from Child's)
Leach, pp. 625-626, "Alison and Willie" (1 text)
Roud #245
File: C256

See The Indian's Death Song (File: FCW040)

DESCRIPTION: "Now is come September, the hunter's moon begun," and young men and women meet in the fields: "All among the barley, Who would not be blythe, When the ripe and bearded barley Is smiling on the scythe." Barley is declared the king of all grains
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Perkins)
KEYWORDS: food courting harvest
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-Thames, p. 210, "The Ripe and Bearded Barley" (1 text) (also Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 300)
DT, AMNGBARL
ADDITIONAL: W.O. Perkins, The Golden Robin (Boston, 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 52-53, "All Among the Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1283
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1871 00667, "All Among the Barley" Lee & Walker, (Philadelphia), 1871 (tune); also sm1874 10936, "All Among the Barley, J. L. Peters (New York), 1874
NOTES: Both LOC sheet music publications credit the tune of this to Elizabeth Stirling, and item sm1871 00667 says the words to this are by "A.T." But the tune doesn't look like the one I know; I suspect both have been somewhat rewritten. - RBW
Perkins also attributes this to "E. Stirling." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BdAAtBar

DESCRIPTION: "Who'd ever think that Utah would stir the world so much? Who'd ever think the Mormons were widely known as such?" The singer is happy that "the Mormons have a name." "We bees are nearly filling the hive of Deseret... For all are talking of Utah."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (The Bee-Hive Songster, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AFS2, p. 601, "All Are Talking of Utah" (1 text)
Roud #10849
File: CAFS2601

DESCRIPTION: "All around de ring, Miss Julie, Julie, Julie! All around de ring, Miss Julie! All on a summer day. Oh, de moon shines bright, de stars give light; Look way over yonder! Hug her a little and kiss her too, And tell her how you love her!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 106, "All Around de Ring, Miss Julie" (1 text)
File: Br3106

DESCRIPTION: A man brags to a woman about the virtues of his boat, his other possessions, and his willingness to beat his rival to win the girl. The girl replies comically in the negative.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: courting bragging rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 135, "All Around Green Island Shore" (1 text)
Doyle2, p. 65, "All Around Green Island's Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 9, "All Around Green Island's Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 72, "All Around Green Island's Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6353
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Green Island Shore
NOTES: The "Trinity" mentioned in the song is perhaps in Trinity Bay but there is a "Green Island Cove" and a "Green Island Brook" far away in the Strait of Belle Isle. - SH
Doyle3 cites "Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland" [Greenleaf & Mansfield, 1933] as the source. - BS
File: Doy65

DESCRIPTION: The singer's true love has been transported; (he) promises that "All around my hat I will wear the green willow... for a twelve month and a day... [for] my true love ... ten thousand miles away." He hopes they can reunite and marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Ashton)
KEYWORDS: love separation transportation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy 145, "All Round My Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 126-127, "All Round My Hat" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 80-81, "All Around My Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 194-195, "All Round My Hat" (1 tune, presumably this one)
DT, ROUNDHAT*
Roud #567
RECORDINGS:
Neil O'Brien, "All Around My Hat" (on MRHCreighton)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Miller" (tune)
cf. "The Death of Brugh" (tune)
cf. "Around Her Neck She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (theme)
cf. "The Green Willow" ("All around my hat" lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
The Death of Brush (File: RcTDOB)
NOTES: Kennedy calls this "Perhaps one of the most popular of all English love songs." And this does not even take into account the Steeleye Span recording, said to have gone higher on the British pop charts than any other traditional song. (Don't ask me if that's a compliment.)
But Kennedy also claims this as the same tune as "The Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade" (for which see under "The Miller of Dee") -- which it is *not*; "The Budgeon" is in the Lydian mode, and his tune for "All Around My Hat" is an ordinary Ionian melody. (Possibly the two were more alike in the original version of Chappell, which was his reference for "The Budgeon"; that edition levelled some modal tunes).
One of Sam Henry's texts, "The Laird's Wedding," mixes this with "The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token)" [Laws P31]. There are hints of such mixture in other versions of the two songs. Roud goes so far as to lump them.
Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, pp. 83-84) has what is evidently a version of this song, from about 1840 -- in dialect! ("All round my hat, I vears a green villow.") It is credited to J. Ansell (John Hansell) and John Valentine. If this is the actual origin of the chorus, I have to think it merged with some separate love song. But I suspect the Ansell/Valentine piece of being a perversion of an actual folksong.
Hazlitt, p. 621, declares, "To wear the willow long implied a man's being forsaken by his mistress." However, none of the supporting evidence cited by Hazlitt seems very relevant.
Ault, pp.. 14-15, 519, claims that the first mention of wearing green willow comes in a poem by John Heywood (1497?-1580?): "All a green willow, willow, willow, All a green willow is my garland." The manuscript, BM Add. 15233, is dated c. 1545. We also find the notion in Shakespeare's "Othello," IV.iii, and in Salisbury's "Buen Matina" (1597).
According to Alexander, p. 319, "The willow, especially the weeping variety, symbolized the pain of lost love. Hence the expression 'To wear the willow' meant to go into mourning, especially for a bride or a girl who had lost her sweeheart."
Interestingly, something similar is found as far away as China, although the willow there was considered a more positive plant. According to Eberhardt, p. 314, "In ancient China it was customary to give someone who was going away twigs broken from a willow-tree. Thus, a scholar who was being moved to a post in the provinces would receive such twigs from women and friends assembled at the east gage of the capital city."
Simpson/Roud, pp. 391-392, note a strong association between the willow and sorrow -- commemorated even by the phrase the "weeping willow." They cite Vickery, who noted the association between willows and weeping in the King James Bible translation of Psalm 137:2 (where the exiles from Jerusalem hung their harps on the willows) while noting that Vickery thought these were in fact poplar trees. The identity of the tree is in fact far from certain. The New Revised Standard Version has "willows" in the text, "poplars" in the margin. The Revised English Bible also has "willow trees" in the text, with "poplars" in the margin. Dahood, p. 268 has "poplars" in the text but mentions "aspens" in his margin on p. 270.
InterpretersDict, volume IV, p. 848, observes that willows and poplars are fairly closely related, and both grow by watercourses. There are two Hebrew words which might be translated "willow"; one is found only in Ezekiel 17:5, the other in Leviticus 23:40, Job 40:22, Psalm 137:2, Isaiah 15:7, 44:4. My guess is, the KJV rendered "willows" based on Jerome's Vulgate Latin, which implies that the meaning "willow" goes back at least to the fourth century. "Willow" is also the rendering used by the LXX Greek, which puts us back to at least the first century B.C.E., although the unknown translator of LXX wasn't nearly the Hebrew scholar that Jerome was.
Of course, what people knew was the King James translation; the actual meaning of the word hardly matters.
Alexander, who concurs with Simpson/Roud in linking the mourning willow to Psalm 137, adds that "It was a tradition that as a result of the Babylonian Captivity the branches of some willow trees drooped to become weeping willows." - RBW
In view of the broadside parodies listed below I am surprised not to find (yet) any broadsides for "All Around My Hat."
Bodleian, Harding B 11(38), "All Around My Hat I'll Wear the Green Willow" ("All round my hat I vears a green villow ..."), J. Pitts (London), 1797-1834; also Firth b.27(536), "All Around My Hat I Wear a Green Willow"; Harding B 16(5a), Firth c.21(60), Firth c.21(62), Harding B 20(2), Harding B 11(40), "All Round My Hat"
LOCSinging, as200070, "All Round My Hat," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also cw100090, as100150, "All Round My Hat"
Broadside LOCSinging as200070: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Bibliography

• Alexander: Marc Alexander, A Companion to the Folklore, Myths & Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing, 2002
• Ault: Norman Ault, Elizabethan Lyrics, 1949 (I use the 1960 Capricorn Books edition)
• Dahood: Mitchell Dahood, Psalms III, being volume 17A of the Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 1970
• Eberhard: Wolfram Eberhard, A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought (originally published in 1983 as Lexicon chinesischer Symbole), translated from the German by G. L. Campbell, 1986 (I use the 2003 Routledge paperback edition)
• Hazlitt: W. C. Hazlitt, Dictionary of Faiths & Folklore, Reeves & Turner, 1905 (I use the 1995 Studio Editions paperback)
• InterpretersDict: [George Arthur Buttrick et al, editor], The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, four volumes, 1962 (a fifth supplementary volume was published later)
• Simpson/Roud: Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford, 2000

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

DESCRIPTION: A ring-skipping song. "All around the Maypole, And now Miss Sally, won't you shout for joy?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 706, "All around the Maypole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 142, ("The May Pole Song") (1 text)
NOTES: There are of course many maypole songs in existence, the oldest known to me being "About the may Pole" by Thomas Morley (1557-1603?; for text see Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 127-132). This doesn't really sound like it's descended from an English original, though. - RBW
File: BSoF706

See Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey) (File: R436)

See The Corpus Christi Carol (File: L691)

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old man and he wasn't very rich, And when he died, he didn't leave much But a great big hat with a great big rim All bound 'round with a woolen string. A woolen string (x2), All bound round... A great big hat with a... All bound round...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott)
KEYWORDS: death clothes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott, pp. 157-158, "All Bound 'Round with a Woolen String" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3725
NOTES: Linscott believes the words to this to be related to "All Around My Hat." I don't see the resemblance; it made me think of "The Miller's Three Sons." The tune is said to be related to the Irish air "Old Rose Tree." - RBW
File: Lins157

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

DESCRIPTION: "First young lady all around in the corner, All around in the center (x2), First young lady all around on the corner." "And balance to your partner. "Swing to your partner and we'll all run away." "And all chaw hay on the corner."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolford, pp. 21-22=WolfordRev, pp. 149-150, "All Chaw Hay on the Corner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7890
File: Wolf021

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a young girl... It was primp, primp, primp this way... All for the men." Typically the girl is courted, marries, (has a child), quarrels with her husband; he died, she weeps and/or laughs at his funeral; she lives happily/as a beggar/other
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "When I was a young girl... It was primp, primp, primp this way... All for the men." "The boys came courting.... It was kiss, kiss, kiss this way." "Then we quarrelled...." "Pretty soon we made it up...." "Then we married...." Girl's biography marked by the chorus "This-a-way, ha-ha, that-a-way." Typically the girl is courted, marries, (has a child), quarrels with her husband; he died, she weeps and/or laughs at his funeral; she lives happily/as a beggar/other
KEYWORDS: courting marriage beauty playparty death funeral
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,SW) Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1602, "When I Was a Lady" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OShaughnessy-Lincolnshire 14, "When I Was a Maiden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 260, "All for the Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 10, "When I Was a Young Girl" (1 text)
Opie-Game 68, "When I Was a Lady" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Newell, #25, "When I Was a Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Mimi Clar, "Songs of My California Childhood" in Western Folklore, Vol. XVIII, No. 3 (Jul 1959 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 245-246, "When I Was a Baby" (1 text)
Roud #5040 and 2648
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When I Was an Angel
NOTES: The GreigDuncan8 and Opie versions don't tell a story. They are a series of verses of people -- a lady, a gentleman, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and so on, as in a game -- for each of whom "It's aye O this way ... O then! O then...." I had thought about splitting this version until I read Gomme 2.362-374 who was both this version and the narrative version, and mixed versions besides. - BS
The version in Newell is similar: When I was a shoemaker... gentleman... lady. Perhaps the best split would be between the ballad and the singing game. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: LoF260

See We Won't Go Home Until Morning (File: RJ19226)

See Hungry Hash House (File: San207)

DESCRIPTION: "I got shoes, you got shoes, All got's children got shoes; When I get to heaven, gonna put on my shoes, Gonna (shout) all over God's heaven." Similarly with robes, crowns, wings, harps, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (recording, Fisk University Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 550, "All God's Chillun Got Shoes" (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
Courlander-NFM, p. 67, "(Goin' to Shout All over God's Heaven)" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 359, "All God's Children Got Shoes" (1 text)
Roud #11826
RECORDINGS:
Louis Armstrong, "Going to Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Decca 2085, 1938)
Big Bethel Choir #1 "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Columbia 14157-D, 1926)
Commonwealth Quartet, "I'm Going to Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Domino 0173, 1927)
Cotton Belt Quartet, "I'm Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Vocalion 15263, 1926)
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "All God's Children Got Wings" (OKeh 8917, 1931)
Elkins Payne Jubilee Singers, "Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Paramount 12071, 1923)
Lt. Jim Europe's Singing Serenaders, "Ev'rybody Dat Talks 'Bout Heaven Ain't Goin' There" (Pathe 22105, 1919)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Victor 16448, 1909)
Fisk University Male Quartet, "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Columbia A1883, 1915)
Mitchell's Christian Singers, "Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Melotone 6-04-64, 1936)
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Everybody Talkin' About Heaven Ain't Goin' There" (on NFMAla5)
Southern Four: "Shout All Over God's Heaven" [medley w. "Standin' in the Need of Prayer"] (Edison 51364, 1924)
Edna Thomas, "I Got Shoes" (Columbia 1863-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
West Virginia Collegiate Institute Glee Club, "Shout All Over God's Heab'n" (Brunswick 3497, 1927)
NOTES: Courlander believes this song to be based on the Revelation to John. It appears to me that it is simply an exuberant expression of a poor, oppressed Christian hope in the afterlife. The word shoe/shoes is used ten times in the King James version of the New Testament, but all are in the Gospels and Acts, not the Apocalypse -- and the word "hypodema" translated "shoe" in the King James Bible, is better translated "sandal," which is the word used in the Revised English Bible, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, and even (based on a quick check of Matthew 3:11) the conservative New International Version and the reactionary New King James Version. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: CNFM067A

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

DESCRIPTION: "All hail the power of Jesus's name, Let angels prostrate fall, Bring for the royal diadem And crown him lord of all." The "chosen seed of Israel's race" and "sinners" are urged to "spread your trophies at his feet."
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Perronet (1726-1792), adapted by John Rippin (1751-1836)
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (published with a tune by Olver Holden)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 68-70, "All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17726
NOTES: This is one of those hymns that ends up with a zillion tunes. Oliver Holden (1765-1844) wrote the first one, in the process making the song popular. Holden's tune is usually published under the title "Coronation." This was the only tune I found in an early twentieth century Lutheran hymnal I checked, although the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship also uses "Miles Lane." I also found "Coronation" used in H. S. Perkins's The Climax (1893?), p. 212.
A Methodist hymnal had two other tunes: Miles' Lane (listed as by William Shrubsole, 1760-1806) and Diadem (as by James Ellor, 1819-1899); the same three tunes appear in a Baptist hymnal, though without the detailed attributions. My 1871 Original Sacred Harp has it to Coronation, Cleburne (as by S. M. Denson), and Green Street (as by J. J. Husband c. 1809).
The 1926 Lutheran songbook The Parish School Hymnal has Miles' Lane as the first tune and Coronation as the third; for its second, it has "Laud," by John B. Dykes (1862)
According to Marilyn Kay Stulken, Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship, Fortress Press, 1981, "Miles Lane" was the melody used in the original publication.
The "Coronation" tune has been used for other melodies. such as "The heav'ns declare thy glory, Lord, Which that above can fill."
Holden, according to William Arms Fisher, One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States: 1783-1933, Oliver Ditson Company, 1933, pp. 14-15, was a carpenter and joiner who settled in Charleston, Massachusetts in 1788, and turned to composing and teaching music. "Coronation" appeared in his book The American Harmony in 1792. He published The Worcester Collection of Sacred Harmony inn 1797. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Rd017726

See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes hard times: People selling farms; automobiles repossessed; banks with no money to lend. Farmers should have stuck with mules, not tractors. Dandy young men now "plowin' and a-grubbin'." His partner has drunk up all the white lightning.
AUTHOR: Probably Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes hard times; people have had to sell their farms and leave; their automobiles have been repossessed. He goes to the bank for a loan; they have no money left either. He reproaches other farmers for buying tractors, saying they should have stuck with mules; young men, who had been getting all duded up, are now, "plowin' and a-grubbin'"; women likewise, for, "All they've got's gone." To cap everything, his partner has drunk up all the white lightning.
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes nonballad drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "All I've Got's Gone" (Vocalion 14904, 1924; Vocalion 5051, c. 1926)
Asa Martin, "All I've Got's Gone" (Champion 16539, 1932)
Oddie McWinders, "All I've Got Is Gone" (Crown 3398, 1932)
New Lost City Ramblers, "All I've Got's Gone" (on NLCR09)
Ernest Stoneman, "All I've Got's Gone" (OKeh 45009, 1925; on HardTimes1); Ernest V. Stoneman and His Dixie Mountaineers, "All I've Got's Gone" (Edison 52489, 1929; rec. 1928); Ernest Stoneman [and Eddie Stoneman], "All I Got's Gone" (Vocalion 02901, rec. 1934); "All I Got's Gone" (on Autoharp01)
NOTES: The song was originally written after a disastrous flood in 1907, but was adapted for the circumstances of the Great Depression. It should be noted that conditions on the farms had already been bad for several years before the stock market crashed in 1929.
Despite the "nonballad" keyword, there's a disjointed narrative here, so I've indexed it. - PJS
File: RcAIGG

DESCRIPTION: "I used to have money to throw away, But now I haven't a place to say, It's hard times, Billy Po' boy, It's hard times when you're down and out." The singer loses his money at the bucket shop. He talks of the life of a poor man, and how the law treats him
AUTHOR: unknown (probably at least partly the work of Uncle Dave Macon)
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: poverty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boswell/Wolfe 99, pp. 152-153, "Billy Po' Boy" (1 text plus an excerpt of another Dave Macon version, 1 tune)
Roud #17520 and 11020
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "All In Down And Out Blues" (Bluebird 7350, 1937?)
File: BoWo099

DESCRIPTION: "Hippity-hop to the bucket shop...." Singer has lost all his money in the stock market. He says this "certainly exposes/Wall Street's proposition was not all roses." Cho: "It's hard times, ain't it poor boy...when you're down and out"
AUTHOR: Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Hippity-hop to the bucket shop...." Singer has lost all his money in the stock market and is now down and out. He says this "certainly exposes/Wall Street's proposition was not all roses." He notes "If they catch you with whiskey in your car/You're handicapped, and there you are", and that if you have money you can get off but if you have none you'll go to jail. Chorus: "It's hard times, ain't it poor boy...when you're down and out"
KEYWORDS: poverty crime prison punishment commerce money hardtimes judge
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1929 - Stock market crashes, then continues to sink
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "All In Down and Out Blues" (Bluebird B-7350, 1938, recorded 1937)
NOTES: "Bucket shops" were crooked brokerage firms; they fleeced many customers in the 1920s stock market bubble. They would delay executing a customer's trade if they thought they could buy at a lower price or sell at a higher price a day later, then pocket the difference.
Bert Williams & Arthur Collins both recorded a piece called "All In Down and Out" (Williams: Columbia A5031, 1908; rec.1906; Collins: Victor 5027, 1907; Victor 16211, 1909), with composer credits to R. C. McPherson & [?] Smith, Elmer Bowman & [?] Johnson; it would later be recorded by, among others, Richard Brooks & Riley Puckett, but I don't know its relationship to this song. My guess is that Uncle Dave used it as the basis of his topical parody. -PJS
File: RcAIDAOB

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, what is this that steals upon my frame? Is it death? is it death?... If this is death, I soon shall be From every pain and sorrow free... All is well, all is well." The singer bids his friends not to weep, and looks forward to salvation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Brown, from a manuscript reportedly dated 1841)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Brown, pp. 78-79, "All Is Well" (1 text)
ST FlBr078 (Partial)
Roud #5455
NOTES: Arthur Hugh Clough (1816-1861) wrote a piece, "Whate'er You Dream With Doubt Possesst," subtitled "All Is Well," which sounds like it might be this, and the date makes it barely possible -- but I haven't seen the Clough poem, so I can't say. The whole piece sounds very familiar -- and it's not because it has so many Biblical references; the references in this poem are very free.
There is a Mormon hymn with the same "All is well, all is well" refrain and, of course, mentions of Saints and the like. It doesn't look like the same piece, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were adapted from this. - RBW.
File: FlBr078

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

DESCRIPTION: Singer and fellow ploughmen finish their work; they will unyoke their horse and groom him, after which the (singer/master) promises them a jug of ale. At dawn they will begin again. Refrain: "You're all jolly fellows that follows (handles) the plough"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 148)
KEYWORDS: farming work drink nonballad horse worker pride boss
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig #158, p. 1, "The Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plough"; Greig #161, p. 2, "The Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plough" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
GreigDuncan3 418, "We Are All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy 241, "All Jolly Fellows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland, pp. 64-65, "Twas Early One Morning" (1 text, 2 tunes)
MacCollSeeger 102, "All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Thames, pp. 207-208, "We're All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough" (1 text) (also Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 238)
Roud #346
RECORDINGS:
Fred Jordan, "We're All Jolly Fellows as Follow the Plough" (on Voice05)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 148, "All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough" ("When four o'clock comes then up we rise"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 16(301a), Harding B 11(3226), Harding B 11(4369), Harding B 11(4370), Harding B 11(4371), "We Are All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ploughman (II)" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plough
We Are Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough
File: K241

See All My Sins Been Taken Away (File: Ch085)

See Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane (File: FSWB053)

DESCRIPTION: "I don't care what this world may say, The're all taken away... All my sins are taken away, taken away." Much of the rest of the song floats, e.g. "The devil is mad and I am glad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (collected from Tom Gregory, according to Coleman/Bregman)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 551, "All My Sins Been Taken Away" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 85, "My Sins Are All Taken Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman, pp. 76-77, "All Mah Sins Been Taken Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4205
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "All My Sins Are Taken Away" (Victor 40095, 1929; on KHarrell02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (lyrics)
cf. "Free at Last" (lyrics)
NOTES: This song shares nearly every word of its contents with "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane," and I initially lumped them. But there are enough versions without the walkin' cane that I finally split them. This particular version seems best-known in North Carolina; perhaps it's a local sub-text? - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Ch085

DESCRIPTION: "If religion were a thing that money could buy, The rich would live and the poor would die. All my trials, Lord, soon be over. Too late, my brothers, too late but never mind." The weary singer looks forward to victory after death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 644, "Tree in Paradise" (3 short texts; the "A" version combines "Few Days" with a "Tree in Paradise" text; "B" is too short to classify easily; "C" seems to be mostly "All My Trials"; there may also be influence from "Is Your Lamps Gone Out" or the like)
Silber-FSWB, p. 359, "All My Trials" (1 text)
DT, ALLTRIAL*
Roud #11938
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Lewis Jackson & Charlotte Rucell, "Tallest Tree in Paradise" (on MuSouth07)
Pete Seeger, "All My Trials" (on PeteSeeger31)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (lyrics)
cf. "Noah's Ark" (lyrics)
cf. "Zek'l Weep" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel (Paul and Silas)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Is Your Lamps Gone Out?" (lyrics)
cf. "Tell All the World, John" (lyrics)
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Although this is generally considered a Black song, one of the key couplets goes back to England. According to Roy Palmer, The Folklore of Warwickshire, Rowman & LIttlefield, 1976, p. 41, the stanza
This life is a city of crooked streets,
Death is the market-place where all men meet,
If life were merchandise that money could buy
The rich would live and the poor would die
was found at Tysoe in 1798. Palmer files this among verses on gravestones, although he does not explicitly say for whom, if anyone, this one was carved. - RBW
The Jackson/Rucell recording, from 1954, is classified here in near-desperation; it consists primarily of the single floating verse "The tallest tree in Paradise/The Christians call it the Tree of Life" (also found in "Is Your Lamps Gone Out?"), plus the chorus "Hey brother with a hey/Hey, sister with a hey-ey-ey/Jes' take a little bottle and let's go home/Yes, my Lord." - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FSWB359B

DESCRIPTION: "Paul and Silas bound in jail, All night long, One for to sing and the other for to pray... Do, Lord, deliver me." "Straight up to heaven... tain't but the one train on this track." "Never seen the like... People keep comin' and the train done gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg, pp. 448-449, "All Night Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 257, "All Night Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST San448 (Full)
Roud #6703
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Baby, All Night Long" (words)
cf. "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This has so many floating lines that I'm not even going to try to untangle them.
Paul and Silas's stay in prison is related in Acts 16:19-40. - RBW
File: San448

See Baby, All Night Long (File: CSW172)

See Four Old Whores (File: EM006)

See Baby, All Night Long (File: CSW172)

DESCRIPTION: Jesus is taken from Gethsemane, brought before Pilate, told, "Here is your cross," then crucified. Refrain: "All night, Jesus, all night"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, men from Andros Island)
KEYWORDS: execution punishment trial ordeal Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: Bahamas
Roud #15626
RECORDINGS:
Unidentified men from Andros Island, "All Night, Jesus, All Night" (AAFS 503 A1, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
NOTES: As often happens, this is rather a mix of accounts from the gospels. The name "Gethsemane" occurs only in Matthew 26:36=Mark 14:32. But Jesus's only contact with Pilate, in Matthew and Mark, consists of two exchanges. Pilate first asks if Jesus is the King of the Jews. Jesus answers with the highly ambiguous "You say [so]." Then Pilate asks Jesus what his response is to the charges of the crowd and the priests; Jesus refuses to answer.
Nowhere is Jesus told "Here is your cross." In the Gospel of John, however, Jesus and Pilate have extended conversations, and only in John does Jesus carry his own cross (John 19:17; in Mark 15:21 and parallels, Simon of Cyrene carries the cross for him).
In a probably-irrelevant addendum, Jesus was on the cross only during the day; had he not died before nightfall, the soldiers, in fact, were ordered to hasten the prisoners' death to ensure that they were not around during the night (John 19:31-36). - RBW
File: RcANJAN

See Bold Lover Gay [Laws P23] (File: LP23)

See The Loss of the Industry Off Spurn Point (File: BrMa180)

DESCRIPTION: "Yonder goes my true love, he's gone far away, He's gone for to leave me, many and many a day... For the sake of my true love I'm sure I must die." When he returns, she tells him she has been sick for him. They are married, and "travel all over Arkansas."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation marriage travel playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 593, "All Over Arkansas" (1 text)
Roud #7678
NOTES: This is probably a rather worn-down remnant of one or another lost-love-returned ballads (even though Randolph lists it among the playparties). But with only two and a half stanzas of text, and some of that localized, I can't really tell which piece it derives from. - RBW
File: R593

DESCRIPTION: "All over the ridges we lay the pine low. They break in the fall for want of more snow. Said Murphy to Burk, You're the worst out of jail For hauling up timber...." The singer is "put to chain" for refusing to work with Fred Miller. He praises the food
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering work food
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-Lumbering #15, "All Over the Ridges" (1 damaged text, tune referenced)
Roud #4561
File: FowL15

DESCRIPTION: Singer's lover Henry, while travelling "all over those hills" gets "deluded" from her at a tavern; the singer spies him beside another woman. Singer vows she'll go home and destroy it; rather than part from him, she'd as soon see him die in a workhouse
AUTHOR: Unknown, but probably Caroline Hughes
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer's lover Henry, while travelling "all over those hills" gets "deluded" from her at a tavern called the Hop and Bottle; the singer spies him through the window beside another woman, Ellen. Singer vows she'll go home and smash doors and windows, and leave the roof in shadows, and that, rather than part from him, she'd as soon see him die in a workhouse
KEYWORDS: jealousy infidelity love seduction death lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacSeegTrav 80, "All Over Those Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme)
NOTES: MacColl & Seeger note a resemblance of this song's gestalt to that of "Locks and Bolts," and I agree, but as the plots are quite different, I keep them apart. - PJS
File: McCST080

DESCRIPTION: "All quiet along the Potomac tonight Except here and there a stray picket...." The picket dreams of his family as he stands guard. Suddenly a shot rings out; the guard falls wounded and bids farewell to his family; "The picket's off duty forever."
AUTHOR: Words: Ethel Lynn Beers/Music: Various
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death family separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 2-5, "All Quiet Along the Potomac" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWarFull, pp. 128-130, "All Quiet Along the Potomac (The Picket Guard)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWarAbbr, pp. 66-67, "All Quiet Along the Potomac" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-CivWar, pp. 64-65, "The Picket-Guard" (1 text)
DT, ALLQUIET*
ST RJ19002 (Full)
Roud #6559
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, cw104620, "The Picket Guard", Johnson (Philadelphia), n.d.; also cw104610, cw104630, as110970, "[The] Picket Guard"; hc00006a, "Picket's Last Watch"
NOTES: In the early stages of the Civil War, when the southerners still held the south bank of the Potomac, the War Department issued regular bulletins on the status of the armies. The papers regularly printed these reports of "All quiet along the Potomac." One day, the report ran "All quiet along the Potomac. A picket shot." Hence this song.
Although several have claimed the authorship (the claim made by Lamar Fontaine was particularly well-known, and is quoted by H. M. Wharton in War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, p. 27), the poem is known to have been written by Mrs. Ethel Lynn Beers of New York in 1861. Several tunes have been offered, e.g. by John Hill Hewitt and W.H. Goodwin; Ben Schwartz points out that broadside LOCSinging as110970 lists "Music Composed and Sung by D. A. Warren." Hewitt supplied the version for the 1863 sheet music (published with attribution of authorship), but Goodwin's tune appears to have survived best.
Interestingly, although the poem is Northern, the title is Southern. Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 119, lists a printing by Julian A. Selby of Columbia, SC as the first under this title, adding "The words of this song were published by a number of Northern music publishers under the title of The Picket Guard, each with a different musical setting." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RJ19002

DESCRIPTION: "Here I stand all ragged and dirty, If you don't come kiss me I'll run like a turkey." "Here I stand on two little chips, Pray, come kiss my sweet little lips." "Here I stand crooked like a horn, I ain't had no kiss since I've been born."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 573, "Here I Stand All Ragged and Dirty" (1 text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 137, (no title) (1 fragment)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 242, (no title) (1 fragment, beginning "Here I stand all black and dirty")
Roud #7663
File: R573

See All Around My Hat (File: K145)

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

See I'll Be All Smiles Tonight (File: R812)

See All the Men in Our Town (File: GrD81577)

DESCRIPTION: The last word in each couplet is the subject of the next couplet. For example, "All the girls in France Do the hula-hula dance; And the dance they do ...." The chains through dance, shoe, pill, chicken and duck, make no sense.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie-Game)
KEYWORDS: France playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(High))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie-Game, p. 480, ("All the girls in France") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hootchy-Kootchy Dance" (lyrics)
NOTES: This is probably the same as "The Hootchy-Kootchy Dance," but on the off chance that this is the clean version of that bawdy song, I have split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa480B

See All The Good Times Are Past And Gone (File: R792)

DESCRIPTION: "All the good times are past and gone, All the good times are o'er... Darling, don't you weep no more." Verses may concern almost any depressing topic, but often involve a lost love, and often the verse "I wish to the Lord I'd never been born...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Ted & Gertrude Gossett)
KEYWORDS: love separation hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 792, "All the Good Times are Past and Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ALLGDTYM
Roud #7421
RECORDINGS:
Ted & Gertrude Gossett, "All the Good Times Are Passed and Gone" (Columbia 15596-D, 1930)
Monroe Brothers, "All The Good Times Are Passed And Gone" (Bluebird B-7191, 1936)
File: R792

See Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)

DESCRIPTION: "All the men in our town lead a happy life Except [boys-name] and he wants a wife." He picks [girls-name] "dandlin' on his knee" Sometimes she makes a pudding. Sometimes she might, or does, die, he would cry, and she would be buried.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: wedding death funeral bachelor playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1577, "All the Men in Our Town" (2 texts)
Opie-Game 21, "All the Boys in our Town" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #12969
File: GrD81577

DESCRIPTION: "Hush-a-bye, don't you cry, Go to sleep you little baby. When you wake, you shall have All the pretty little horses." The horses are described. Another verse describes a baby (lamb) left in a meadow at the mercy of the birds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: lullaby animal horse
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Randolph 269, "Black Sheep Lullaby" (2 short texts, both rather far removed from the usual form; 1 tune)
BrownIII 115, "Hush-a-Bye, Don't You Cry" (3 text plus mention of 1 more); also
"Poor Little Lamb Cries Mammy" (3 short texts, perhaps related to the Randolph version)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp.145-148, "Lullaby," (no title), "Go to Sleepy, Little Baby," "Got to Sleep, Little Baby," (no title), (no title), "Ole Cow," (no title) (8 texts, most short, 2 tunes); also probably pp. 148-149, "Baa-Baa Black Sheep" (1 short text, one tune, which is much like this piece except for the first line)
Sandburg, pp. 454-455, "Go To Sleepy" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the child is promised rewards upon waking -- but seemingly also threatened with the "booger man" if it won't sleep)
SharpAp 233, "Mammy Loves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Trent-Johns, pp. 20-21, "Go To Sleepy, Little Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 204-205, "Hushabye (All the Pretty Little Horses)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 2, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 304-305, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 265, "Black Sheep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 217-218, "[Horsey Song]" (1 text, 1 tune, partly repeated on page 223)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 704, "You Shall Have a Horse to Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 224, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text); also probably p. 235, "Go to Sleepy, Little Baby" (very short fragment)
Silber-FSWB, p. 407, "All The Pretty Little Horses" (1 text)
DT, ALLHORSE
Roud #6705
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "Whole Heap a Little Horses" (on LomaxCD1702)
Pete Seeger, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (on GrowOn2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lost Babe" (theme of young one at the mercy of birds)
File: LxU002

See Ladies in the Dining Room (File: LxSi070)

DESCRIPTION: The singer's lover is taken from their bed by a pressgang; she begs them to spare him but they refuse. She laments, remembering the joys of their life together, but says she will not be downcast, as someday he may return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: love separation lament sailor pressgang
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 13, "All Things Are Quite Silent" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THNGSLNT*
Roud #2532
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lowlands of Holland" (theme)
NOTES: "...by [1835] the system of impressment had almost faded out, although it was never actually abolished by Act of Parliament." -- A. L. Lloyd
Lloyd reports this as the only known version of the song. - PJS
File: VWL013

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

DESCRIPTION: "Sleep, my child, and peace attend thee, All through the night. Guardian angels God will send thee, All through the night." The singer watches over the child while the world sleeps. (The (dying?) child/lover is wished to heaven)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Edward Jones, "Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards")
KEYWORDS: lullaby death love
FOUND IN: Wales
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 410, "All Through the Night" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 410, "All Through the Night"
DT, THRUNITE* THRUNIT2*
RECORDINGS:
Shannon Four, "All Through the Night" (Victor 19413, 1924)
NOTES: That this song is originally Welsh is not doubted. The English translation is sometimes credited to Sir Harold Boulton, but Fuld notes that there is no standard English translation. The 1784 version in Jones is not by Boulton. Also, at least one version seems to have been folk processed -- at least, I've seen a text which is about 95% identical to the one I knonw (too close to be an independent translation), but with some different words. - RBW
There seem to be several versions of the song with various plots. In one, the child -- or possibly a dead lover -- is mourned; another is a Christmas carol. - PJS
File: FDWB410B

DESCRIPTION: "Tho' Tyneside coal an' furnace reek Hes made wor rive black eneuf, It's raised a breed o' men that's worth... mair than plack eneuf." The singer praises the people of Shields, who are firm and brave and true friends
AUTHOR: "Harry Haldane"
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: nonballad friend mining
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 174-176, "All Together Like the Folks o' Shields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3173
File: SoR174

DESCRIPTION: Singer warns "don't leave behind the lass you love for the sake of self or gold." He and his love "absconded" in '84 and he is sentenced for life to the prison of Deshure, Cork. His only consolation is his love; maybe she visits him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: prison punishment love crime theft
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 6, "All Ye That's Pierced by Cupid's Darts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9261
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "All Ye That's Pierced by Cupid's Darts" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES: Singer refers to his love as "cuisle geal mo chroi," that is "bright pulse of my heart" - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC006

See The Three Frightened Virgins (File: GrD81893)

DESCRIPTION: "All you that are unto mirth inclined, Consider well and do bear in mind What our great God for us hath done In sending his beloved Son." The listeners are exhorted to praise God, live will, and imitate Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Gilbert)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious carol
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OBC 51, "The Sinner's Redemption" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN112, "All you that are to mirth inclin'd"
Roud #2431
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wexford Carol" (floating lyrics)
File: OBC051

See under The British Grenadiers (File: Log109)

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "Alla en el rancho grande, alla donda vivia, Habia una rancherita, que alegre me decia...." A rancherita on the singer's ranch tells him that she will make herself an outfit such as the ranchero wears
AUTHOR: Silvano R. Ramos
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage clothes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 361-362, "Alla En El Rancho Grande" (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
File: LxA361

See Robin Hood and Allen a Dale [Child 138] (File: C138)

DESCRIPTION: Allan's foster father finds him dying. He calls for help but Allan is attacked and bound. Nevertheless, Allan gets the best of everyone. The singer says that, although Allan leaves him moneyless, he should be honored.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1568 (Bannatyne); 1803 (Jamieson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Allan's foster father finds him lying, dying beyond the farm. When his head breaks open a nurse is sent for; she secretly bringst men of war. They attack and bind him so he cannot flee. Allan's helmet is a wooden cup, passed from hand to hand. Allan lies in a barrel at Christmas and has no equal. Whomever meets Allan, no matter how gallant, cannot confront him without falling to the floor. Allan grows so strong that he sets his mark -- a red nose -- on clerks' face. The singer complains that Allan "leaves no money" in his purse. Nevertheless, he is benign, courteous, and good. Why shouldn't he be honored?
KEYWORDS: violence drink farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Whitelaw-Ballads, pp. 283-284, "Allan-a-Maut" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: George Bannatyne and James Barclay Murdoch, editor, The Bannatyne Manuscript Compiled by George Bannatyne 1568 (Glasgow:Hunterian Club, 1896 ("Digitized by Intenet Archive")) Vol.II, #118 pp. 306-308, "Quhy Sowld Nocht Allane Honorot Be?" (1 text)
Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co, 1806 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol.II, pp. 233-236, "Allan-a-Maut" (1 text).
David Laing, Early Popular Poetry of Scotland and the Northern Border (London: Reeves and Turner (Revision of 1822 and 1826 edition by W. Carew Hazlitt ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 61-63, "Allane-a'-Maut" ("Quhen he was yung, and cled in grene")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Barleycorn (I)" (theme: the tale of brewing) and references there
NOTES: Jamieson is the first, as far as I can find, to reprint the song from the Bannatyne MS.
"Allan o Maut (I)" is one of six Allan o' Maut / John Barleycorn songs analyzed first by Jamieson, later by Dixon, and most recently by Wood. Their analyses are discussed at "John Barleycorn (I)." Each of the six songs has been given its own Index entry for clarity's sake. In the case of "Allan o Maut (I)" there is no carry over of lines to or from any of the other five songs, and it has not been "collected." While there are echoes of this song no lines are shared with the other five songs in the set.
See Laing for the background of the text.
The Laing/Whitelaw text preserves the middle Scots typography and vocabulary. You have choices if you need help with that.
Jamieson Vol. II and Bannatyne Vol. I have glossaries.
Aytoun translates the typography but not the vocabulary. See William Edmondstoune Aytoun, The Ballads of Scotland (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1859 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. I, pp. 103-105, "Allan-A-Maut" (1 text).
Wood translates the vocabulary. I used Wood for the Description [Peter Wood, "John Barleycorn: The Evolution of a Folk-Song Family," Folk Music Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2004, pp. 452-453]. Wood's article is discussed in the Notes to "John Barleycorn" (III).- BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: WhBAOM1

DESCRIPTION: No one can match Master Mault. He is challenged by the miller, hostess maid, smith, carpenter, shoe-maker, weaver, tinker, tailor, sailor, chapman, mason, bricklayer and labourer, butcher and porter(?). He defeats them all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1601-1640? (Pepys 1.427)
KEYWORDS: violence drink farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co, 1806 ("Digitized by Google"))")), Vol.II, pp. 244-250, "Master Mault" (1 text)
William Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads (Hertford: The Ballad Society, 1874 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol.II, pp. 379-382, "A new Ballad for you to looke on, How Mault Doth Deal With Every One" (1 text)
Thomas Evans and R.H. Evans, Old Ballads Historical and Narrative (London: R.H. Evans, 1810 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. IV, #35 pp. 220-226, "A new Ballad for you to looke on, How Mault Doth Deal With Every One" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(83a), "A pleasant old ballad to look upon, How Master Malt Deals With Every Man" ("Master Malt is a gentlemanhe is a Gentleman, And hath beene since the world began"), unknown, no date, accessed 13 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31631, Pepys 1.427, "A New Ballad for You to Look On, How Mault doth Deale With Euery One" ("MAs Mault he is a Gentleman, And hath beene since the world began "), H.G[osson] (London), 1601-1640?, accessed 16 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31632, Pepys 1.471, "A Pleasant New Ballad to Look upon, How Mault Deals With Every Man" ("Mr. Mault is a Gentleman, And hath been since the world began"), J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger (London), 1684-1686, accessed 17 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 30232, Roxburghe 1.342, "A new Ballad for you to looke on, How Mault Doth Deal With Every One" ("MAs Mault is a Gentleman And hath bin since the world began"), John Wright, 1602-1646?, accessed 21 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31891, UGlasgowLib Euing 277, "A pleasant new Ballad to look upon, How Mault deals with every man" ("MAs Mault is a Gentleman And hath bin since the world began"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright and T. Clarke (London), 1674-1679, accessed 14 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31892, UGlasgowLib Euing 278, "A pleasant new Ballad to look upon, How Mault deals with every man" ("MAs Mault is a Gentleman And hath bin since the world began"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright and W. Gilbertson (London), 1658-1664, accessed 14 Nov 2013.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Barleycorn (I)" (theme: the tale of brewing) and references there
cf. "Greensleeves" (tune)
NOTES: Chappell is a duplicate of Roxburghe 1.342.
There are two sets of texts.
Pepys 1.427 (1601-1640?), Roxburghe 1.342 (1602-1646) and Evans appears to be the older set.
The newer set is Euing 278 (1658-1664), Euing 277 (1674-1679), Douce Ballads 3(83a) and Pepys 1.471 (1684-1686). Jamieson, who is analyzing Alan o' Maut and John Barleycorn songs notes where his source text -- Pepys 1.471 -- varies significantly from Pepys 1.427; Jamieson seems imperfectly transcribed (for example, he is missing lines 85-88 in which the tinker tries Mault until his legs won't hold him).
Each member of the older set is 136 lines; each member of the newer set is missing lines 121-124 in which Mault makes a fool of the butcher.
In some cases the lines are almost identical (except for spelling differences); here the sets describe Mault's encounter with the mason and bricklayer's labourer:
---
Older set ll.113-120, illustrated by Pepys 1.427:
Then came the Labourer out with his hood,
And saw his two masters how they stood.
He took master malt by the whood
and swore he would him strike sir.
Mault he ran and for feare did weep,
The Labourer he did skip and leape,
But Mault cast him into the morter heape,
and there he fell a sleepe sir.
---
Newer set ll.113-120, illustrated by Douce Ballads 3(83a) [the only text I have that spells the protagonist's name as "Malt," and -- besides -- it modernizes some spelling, though it retains the long-s typography]:
Then came the Labourer in his Hood,
And saw his two Masters how they stood.
He took his Master Malt by the Hood,
And swore he would him strike, Sir.
Malt he ran, and for fear did weep,
The Labourer he did skip and leap,
But Malt made him into the Morter to leap,
And there he fell a sleep, Sir.
---
In most cases there are significant differences between the older and newer texts; here the sets describe Mault's first battle with the tinker.
---
Older set ll.61-70, illustrated by Pepys 1.427:
The Tinker he tooke the Weavers part
Because he is touching unto his Art,
He tooke the pot and dranke a quart,
the world was very quicke sir.
Mault had of him his owne desire,
He made him tumble into the fire,
There he lost his burling ire,
He hath not found it yet sir.
---
Newer set ll.61-70, illustrated by Douce Ballads 3(83a):
The Tinker took the Weaver's Part,
Such furious rage possest his Heart,
He took the Pot and drank a Quart,
His Wits were very Ripe, Sir.
For Malt the Upper-hand so got,
He knew not how to pay the shot,
But Part without the Reckoning Pot,
And found his stomach sick, Sir
---
"Allan o Maut (II)" is one of six Allan o' Maut / John Barleycorn songs analyzed first by Jamieson, later by Dixon, and most recently by Wood. Their analyses are discussed at "John Barleycorn (I)." Each of the six songs has been given its own Index entry for clarity's sake. In the case of "Allan o Maut (II)" there is no carry over of lines to or from any of the other five songs, and it has not been "collected." However, of the broadsides -- Pepys 1.427, Pepys 1.471, Euing 277, Euing 278, and Douce Ballads 3(83a) -- all but Euing 278 were on the same sheet as, and a second part to, the ballad indexed as "John Barleycorn (III)" which has a great deal of carry-over to collected songs. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: WhBA0M2

DESCRIPTION: "Now Allan O Maut was ance ca'd (bear/Bear), And he was cadged frae Wa to Weer, He first grew green, and then grew white, And a man judg'd than Allan was ripe." Allan is brewed and carried into storage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (GordonBrown/Rieuwerts)
KEYWORDS: drink farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GordonBrown/Rieuwerts, p. 251, "Allan o Maut" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co, 1806 ("Digitized by Google"))")), Vol.II, pp. 237-239, "Allan o' Maut" (1 text)
Roud #164
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Barleycorn (I)" (theme: the tale of brewing) and references there
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "John Barleycorn," and certainly the thematic parallels are clear, But the Gordon/Brown text is largely about the act of breweing, and never mentions (e.g.) the resurrection of John. I tentatively separate them, although there could well be cross-fertilization or versions which might be either. - RBW
Whitelaw-Ballads is from Jamieson.
Jamieson: "from a copy furnished from his own recollection, by the Reverend Williasm Gray of Lincoln, ... compared with a Fragment procured from Scotland [I assume that's a reference to GordonBrown/Rieuwerts]." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GBRS251

See The Banks of Allan Water (File: DTalanwa)

See Over the Mountain (I) (Allanah Is Waiting for Me) (File: R850A)

See The Murder of Alan Beyne (File: MA243)

See Robin Hood and Allen a Dale [Child 138] (File: C138)

DESCRIPTION: Irishmen John Allen, Gould, and Larkin are hanged November 23, at Manchester Gaol, for attacking a police van and shooting Constable Sergeant Brett. Their final farewells are described. The Marchioness of Queensbury sends 300 pounds to the families.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide England lament political police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 18, 1867 - a Fenian band attacks a police van transferring two prisoners in Manchester, and a police officer is shot dead
Nov 24, 1867 - Three of the assailants are hanged (source: Zimmermann)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann 73, "A Lamentation on Allen, Larkin and O'Brien" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(73)[some words illegible], "A Lamentation on Allen Larkin & O'Brien Who Was Executed at Manchester, on the 23rd of Nov. '67," unknown, 1867; also 2806 b.10(130), "A Lamentation on Allen, Larkin, and Goold, Who Were Executed at Manchester, on 23rd November, 1867"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Smashing of the Van (I)" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "The Manchester Martyrs" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "God Save Ireland" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
NOTES: For additional information about this tragic event, see the notes to "The Smashing of the Van (I)." - RBW
File: Zimm073

DESCRIPTION: "They said we'd go to Allentown and get an ambulance, Then crank her up and let her go and start for sunny France," but even getting clothes proves slow. The war against the Germans would end much sooner if the Army were better organized
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore)
KEYWORDS: soldier clothes injury hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore, p. 42, "Allentown Ambulance" (1 short text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
File: NiM042

See A Big Ship Sailing (File: FSWB386A)

DESCRIPTION: "The farmers are gathering from near and from far, The Alliance is sounding the call for the war.. "Here we contend against monopolies' ring." "But one thing is certain, we cannot go wrong If we pull all together while marching along."
AUTHOR: Words: C. F. Vaughan
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Farmers' Alliance, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: farming labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AFS2, p. 489, "Alliance Song" (1 text)
File: CAFS2489

See The Dummy Line (II) (File: ScNS139A)

See The Dummy Line (II) (File: ScNS139A)

DESCRIPTION: Allison Gross, a hideous witch, takes the singer prisoner and tries to induce him to love her. When he refuses, she turns him to a worm (with other sundry curses). He is at last freed by an elven queen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (GordonBrown/Rieuwerts); printed by Jamieson in 1806
KEYWORDS: magic witch shape-changing seduction curse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 35, "Allison Gross" (1 text)
GordonBrown/Rieuwerts, pp. 206-209, "Allison Gross" (1 text, printed parallel to blank pages)
Leach, pp. 128-131, "Alison Gross" (1 text, with a Danish (?) text for comparison)
OBB 12, "Alison Gross" (1 text)
PBB 17, "Allison Gross" (1 text)
DBuchan 5, "Allison Gross" (1 text)
Whitelaw-Ballads, pp. 461-462, "Alison Gross" (1 text)
DT 35, ALIGROSS
ADDITIONAL: Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1806 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 187-190, "Alison Gross"
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #419, "Allison Gross" (1 text)
Roud #3212
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" [Child 36] (theme)
NOTES: The name "Allison Gross" is an interesting one, because she is a hag. According to Tauno F. Mustanoja, "The Suggestive Use of Christian Names in Middle English Poetry," in Jerome Mandel and Bruce A. Rosenberg, editors, Medieval Literature and Folklore Studies, Rutgers, 1970, p. 70, the name Allison in literature seems to have been used primarily for young and attractive women. He cites several examples, such as the pretty wife in Chaucer's Miller's Tale, and the once-attractive Wife of Bath herself, and the well-known love lyric "Alison."
However,Lowry Charles Wimberly, Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads: Ghosts, Magic, Witches, Fairies, the Otherworld, 1928 (I use the 1965 Dover paperback edition), p, 212, claims that "The name 'Allison' is among the most common witch names"; he cites Murray, The Witch Cult in Western Europe.
We have not the data to be sure, but I suspect that the name has deeper significance than just a name. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C035

DESCRIPTION: "Take these stripes from, stripes from 'round my shoulder (huh!) Take these chains, chains from 'round my leg." The singer tells how a girl courted him then betrayed him. Now he is in jail with no one to go his bail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax-Singing)
KEYWORDS: courting prison trial punishment betrayal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax-FSUSA 94, "Almost Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-Singing, pp. 386-388, "Lord, It's All, Almost Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 68, "It's Almost Done (On a Monday)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 79, "On a Monday (Almost Done)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10064
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] (floating lyrics)
NOTES: The Silber text begins "On a Monday I was arrested, on a Tuesday locked in jail." But it admits to being adapted by the Lomaxes, so this may be an added verse. -PJS
It may be based on Lead Belly's version. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LxU094

DESCRIPTION: "Some seek the Lord and they don't seek him right, Pray all day and sleep all night. And I'll thank God, almost over...." "Sister, if your heart is warm, Snow and ice will do you no harm." "I been down and I been tried."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 74, "Almost Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12035
File: AWG074B

DESCRIPTION: Hawaiian: "Ha'aheo 'e ka ua i na pali." "Proudly the rain on the cliffs Creeps into the forest." "Farewell to you (x2),... One fond embrace and then I leave To meet again." The singer recalls "sweet memories" and tells the beauties of the place the met
AUTHOR: Queen Liliuokalani
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (manuscript in Liliuokalani's handwriting)
KEYWORDS: love separation home
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AFS2, p. 690, "Aloha Oe (Farewell to You)" (1 Hawaiian text plus English translation)
Roud #22679
File: CAFS689B

DESCRIPTION: "I'm alone and motherless ever since I was a child (x2), Goin' home to your mother, be here after a while." "Ever since my mother was livin', I had the whole round world to please." "Jesus, sometimes I wonder, did I treat my mother right?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Rosenbaum)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum, p. 49, "Alone and Motherless" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16265
File: Rose049

DESCRIPTION: The singer married a sailor/soldier and now wanders disowned by her parents, "Alone on the Shamrock shore" with her baby. Called to fight, her husband has a disagreement with his superior and is hanged/whipped.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(158))
KEYWORDS: grief courting marriage warning war death baby wife sailor soldier trial punishment abuse
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 418-419, "Alone on the Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea418 (Partial)
Roud #9786
RECORDINGS:
Mrs Mary Ann Galpin, "Alone on the Shamrock Shore" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(158), "Shamrock Shore" ("Come all you fair maidens draw nigh"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 28(154), "Shamrock Shore"; Harding B 11(2239), "New Shamrock Shore"; 2806 c.17(382), "Shamrack Shore"; Harding B 11(919), "Disdained Daughter of the Shamrock Shore"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Disdained Daughter of the Shamrock Shore
NOTES: The Bodleian broadsides "Shamrock Shore"/"Shamrack Shore"/"New Shamrock Shore" replaces the sailor by a soldier, the "trifle dispute with his captain" becomes a "small dispute with a serjeant" at Lifford and the war, if specified, is against "the bold rebels"; "Disdained Daughter..." retains the sailor, the war is with Spain and the incident is at Portsmouth [as in Peacock's version]; in all broadsides the hanging is a lashing, father's castle is a "snug neat little cottage...." Perhaps the "New" title indicates that the sailor version is the older. - BS
To add to the fun, the whole thing reminds me strongly of "The Gallant Hussar (A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty)," though there don't seem to be many direct allusions. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea418

See A Soldier from Missouri [Laws A16] (File: LA16)

DESCRIPTION: No plot; verses compare large and small ships, and sailing close and far from shore. Cho: "Now we sail along the lowlands, lowlands, lowlands. But soon we'll leave the peaceful shore and away from all the lowlands, we will roam the wondrous ocean o'er"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (S.B. Luce's _Naval Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sailor sea travel foc's'le nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow, pp. 163-164, "Along the Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9142
File: Harl163

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

DESCRIPTION: Those living here are named and described. For example, "Murdock Stewart ... Owns the wooden horse of Troy; It's the king of all the beasts, Sunny slios a'bhronachain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-Maritime, p. 187, "Along the Shores of Boularderie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2715
NOTES: Boulardie is on Cape Breton. Creighton-Maritime: "Slios a'bhronachain is a little place opposite Bras d'Or where they were given this name because of their fondness for gruel. The name means Gruel Side. Bhrochain is the proper spelling." - BS
File: CrMa187

DESCRIPTION: Alonzo, leaving for the wars in Palestine, bids Imogene be faithful, but another wins her hand. At the wedding, Alonzo's spectre, a rotting skeleton in armor, appears and bears Imogene away. (Four) times a year, the couple will appear at a ball and dance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders & Brown)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Alonzo, leaving for the wars in Palestine, bids Imogene be faithful to him, but another wooer wins her hand. At the wedding, the spectre of Alonzo, a rotting skeleton clad in armor, appears and bears the false Imogene away, to the horror of all. It is said that three times a year the couple will appear at a ball and dance
KEYWORDS: love wedding promise war separation reunion betrayal corpse death supernatural lover soldier ghost marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Brown, pp. 126-129, "Alonzo the Brave and The Fair Imogene" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 380-381, "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RcAtBaFI (Partial)
Roud #4433
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogene" (AFS 4195 B1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Charles E. Walker(s), "Alonzo the Brave" [tr. only] (in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 5(45), "Alonzo the brave, and the fair Imogene," S. Carvalho (London), no date; also Harding B 11(43), "Alonzo the Brave and The Fair Imogine," unknown, no date; Harding B 11(44)=B 11(45), "Alonzo the Brave and The Fair Imogene," unknown, no date (a sort of a musical built around the poem, with various tunes suggested); Johnson Ballads 2876, "The Spectre Knight," unknown, no date (barely legible); Firth b.27 (530), "Alonzo the brave, and the fair Imogine," unknown, no date;
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Gentleman of Exeter (The Perjured Maid)" [Laws P32] (plot)
cf. "Susannah Clargy" [Laws P33] (plot)
cf. "The Ghost's Bride" (plot)
cf. "The Worms Crawl In" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Maggoty Ghost
Irish Ghost Song
NOTES: [A text was] sent to [Flanders and Brown] by Mary A. Towne of Omaha, Nebraska, from the singing of her mother and grandmother, and as written out by her aunt, Agnes Trumbell Somers, who was born in Greenboro, Vermont in 1849. All of her family was from Vermont, although her grandmother's parents both came from near Glasgow, Scotland. "My aunt [sings] the sixteen stanzas of this song from memory now, and that her mother sang it to a cousin who called it The Maggoty Ghost." - AF
Peacock considers this to be an Irish song, although Irish versions seem rare. He may have a case; references to the Virgin seem to imply Catholic origin. But it may be simply that the song is based on an old chronicle.
The Bodleian web site lists this as by Eliza Buttery, but doesn't explain the attribution. Granger's Index to Poetry gives the source as Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk. It certainly looks literary. But I don't think we can list an author.
What appears to be the earliest reference to this song comes from an item, "SAM COWELL'S SONG-BOOK, Containing all his best Copyright Songs, for SIXPENCE." The songs listed on the cover include "The Ratcatcher's Daughter, Alonzo the Brave, Billy Barlow, Richard III, La Somnambula, Mazeppa, Aladdin, The Forty Thieves, The Merchand of Venice, Lord Lovel, Hamlet, and Othello. Since I have not seen the book, only the cover, I cannot prove that it's the same Alonzo the Brave, but obviously it is likely. If so, then the song can be pushed back to before 1864, the year in which Cowell died. For more on Cowell, see the notes to "Billy Barlow (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcAtBaFI

See Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene (File: RcAtBaFI)

DESCRIPTION: French. I have plucked the tail, a thigh, two thighs, a wing, two wings, the back, the belly, le ventre, the neck, the head and the beak" Chorus: "En en plumant les dents, l'alouette et tout du long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage cumulative nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 2-3, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme Lucie Cormier, "Alouette" (on PeacockCDROM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alouette! (I)" (theme and structure)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
J'ai Plume li Bec de Mon Alouette
NOTES: Told from the canonical "Alouette" apparently by the different chorus. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea002

DESCRIPTION: French: "Alouette, gentille Alouette, Alouette, je t'y plumerai." Cumulative: "Je t'y plumerai la tet, le bec, le nez, les yeux, le cou, les ail's, le dos, les patt's, la queue," meaning, "Skylark, I will pluck your head, beak, nose, eyes, neck, etc."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (McGill College songbook)
KEYWORDS: cumulative bird foreignlanguage worksong
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) France US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 118-119, "Alouette!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 39, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
BerryVin, p. 68, "Alouette (Little Lark)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 389, "Alouette" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 95, "Alouette"
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 60-61, "Alouette!" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Herring" (theme)
cf. "Alouette (Lark) (II)" (theme and structure)
SAME TUNE:
Suffocation (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 125)
NOTES: The McGill sonbook printing gives the title as "Alouetté." - RBW
Fuld reports a claim that this was a work song used while plucking birds. I'll believe it when I see evidence.
BerryVin's editors also identify this as "a work-song which used to be sung while women plucked fowls." I'll buy it, if for no other reason than the second source. Unless, of course, Fuld got the idea from them.- PJS
Last updated in version 3.1
File: FJ118

See Alphabet Song (V) (File: ReSh003)

See The Union Soldier's Alphabet (File: MooSW181)

See The Sailor's Alphabet (File: RcTSAlp)

DESCRIPTION: "'A' was an apple which growed on a tree ... And 'Z' was a zebra just come from the race" in rhyming couplets
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 4-5, "Alphabet Song" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #21101
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Alphabet Song" (A) (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]; "Alphabet Song" (B) (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
File: Pea004

See The Bawdy Alphabet; also The Logger's Alphabet, The Sailor's Alphabet, etc. (File: RL616)

See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

See The Sailor's Alphabet (File: RcTSAlp)

DESCRIPTION: "A stands for apple that grew on a tree B was the boat that would hold you and me ... Z the new Zealander with his fine figured face."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Reeves-Sharp)
KEYWORDS: ship work food nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-Sharp 3, "The Alphabet" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alphabet Song" (I) (structure) and references there
NOTES: Reeves-Sharp shares five of twenty-six items with Peacock ["Alphabet Song" (I)] and, of those, only A's line was close to being the same. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: ReSh003

DESCRIPTION: A song listing the letters of the alphabet. It may have a chorus, but the letters are simply listed, with no mnemonics. Some distinguish vowels and consonants.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 873, "The Alphabet Song" (6 texts, 6 tunes, but the "E" and "F" texts are "The Vowels")
Newell, #149, "Counting Rhymes" (8 texts of the "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" type, 4 of "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)", 1 of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn", 1 of "Alphabet Songs", 1 of "Monday's Child", and 20 miscellaneous rhymes)
Roud #3303
RECORDINGS:
May Kennedy McCord, "The Singing Alphabet" (AFS; on LC12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Vowels"
cf. "Mother, May I Go to Swim" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: There are probably dozens of alphabet songs, and no attempt is made to distinguish them here. Note that these are not the same as the various interpreted alphabets (Logger's Alphabet, Sailor's Alphabet, Bawdy Alphabet, etc.)
Portions of these songs not containing the alphabet may be interesting; Randolph's "A" text begins with the floating lyric, "Mother, may I go out to swim? Yes, my darling daughter. Hang your clothes on a hickory limb But don't go near the water." - RBW
The Randolph "A" floating verse is the same as one of the Opie-Oxford2 360, "Mother may I go and bathe?" texts (earliest date in Opie-Oxford2 is 1951 with a reference to "Indiana in the 1890's"). - BS
The Baring-Goulds (for whom this item is #879, p. 327) quote Ditchfield to the effect that this goes back to the sixth century writer Hierocles. The joke may be the same, but I strongly doubt literary dependence. - RBW
The McCord recording is the one Randolph cited. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.3
File: R873

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

DESCRIPTION: "Although my love be black, she is none the worse o' that, For the black makes the white shine bonny."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: love beauty hair nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1854, "Although My Love Be Black" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13590
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment.
GreigDuncan8: "The first two lines resemble [1547 'Strichen's Plantins' Da']." I don't see this at all, but cf. GreigDuncan8 1855, "Black Men Are the Bravest."
Is black the color of her hair or skin? In this case it seems that black hair is being contrasted with white skin. - BS
Or might it be the black of coal dust? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81854

See The Lurgy Stream (The Lurgan/Leargaidh Stream) (File: HHH229)

See The Wreck of the 1262 (The Freight Wreck at Altoona) (File: DTwrck12)

DESCRIPTION: "He's a fine man to me when he's sober And a better man to me could never be, But from Saturday nict till Monday mornin' He's always on the spree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 598, "Always on the Spree" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6048
ALTERNATE TITLES:
He's a Fine Man
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3598

DESCRIPTION: "And am I born to die, To lay this body down, And must my trembling spirit fly Into a world unknown?" "Waked by the trumpet sound, I from my grave shall rise, To see the Judge with glory crowned..." "I must from God be driv'n, Or with my Savior dwell...."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Wesley / Music: Ananias Davidson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1753
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FSNA 125, "Am I Born to Die?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6678
RECORDINGS:
Singers from Stewart's Chapel, Houston, MS, "World Unknown"; "Iduimea" (on Fasola1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "World Unknown" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
When Sorrows Encompass Me 'Round (File: Wa094)
NOTES: Lomax compares the tune to "Lord Lovel." It appears in the shape note books as "Idumea" (the Sacred Harp has a second tune, "World Unknown," listed as by H. S. Reese, but this doesn't seem to be well known). That the tune "Idumea" is traditional cannot be denied. There is more doubt about the words.
In the Missouri Harmony, the tune Idumea has the lyric "My God, my life, my love, To thee, to thee I call; I cannot live, if thou remove, For thou art all in all."
For the life of Charles Wesley, author of the lyrics of this piece, see the notes to "Jesus Lover of My Soul." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LoF125

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9]; also "The Brown Girl" [Child 295] (File: LP09)

DESCRIPTION: "Labor unions should all be united And prove to the world they are one, They could get living wages without trouble, Let us show that it can be done." Hearers are urged to treat all union members as their brothers. They should avoid divisions
AUTHOR: Billy Jenkins (source: Korson-PennLegends)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (year of writing, according to Korson-PennLegends); collected (from the author?) in 1947
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennLegends, pp. 449-451, "Amalgamate as One)
Roud #7743
File: KPL448

See Olban (Alban) or The White Captive [Laws H15] (File: LH15)

DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Take your partner down the line, Amasee, Amasee, Take your partner down the line, Amasee, Amasee, Swing your partner, swing again, Amasee, Amasee...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, children of Brown's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad dancing
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, p. 155, "Amasee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11010
RECORDINGS:
Children of Brown's Chapel School, "Amasee" (on NFMAla6, RingGames, FMUSA)
NOTES: I suppose the chorus line "Amasee" could have been suggested by the Biblical character "Amasa" -- but I rather doubt it. - RBW
So do I. Courlander interprets the word as a shortened, "I must see," but my ears don't quite hear that. "I'm 'a see," maybe, short for "I'm gonna see"? - PJS
File: CNFM155A

DESCRIPTION: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me." The singer describes how Jesus's grace gives him/her the confidence to face all the dangers and troubles of life.
AUTHOR: Words: John Newton (1725-1807)
EARLIEST DATE: 1789 (reportedly composed) or 1831 (printed in Virginia Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Ritchie-Southern, p. 45, "Amazing Grace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 96, "Amazing Grace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 573-574, "Amazing Grace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 261-262, "Amazing Grace" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 369, "Amazing Grace" (1 text)
Jack, p. 241, "Amazing Grace" (1 text)
DT, AMAZGRAC*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 48-49, "Amazing Grace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5430
RECORDINGS:
Howard Adams & congregation, "Amazing Grace" (on LomaxCD1704)
Jesse Allison & group, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 2684 A1)
Horton Barker, "Amazing Grace" (on Barker01)
Mr. & Mrs. N. V. Braley, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 2638 A2)
Rev. J. C. Burnett, "Amazing Grace" (Decca 7494, 1938)
Congregation of the Little Zion Church, Jeff, KY "Amazing Grace" (on Ritchie03)
Congregation of the New Hope Baptist Church, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3042 A2)
Old Regular Baptist Church congregation, "Amazing Grace" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
C. J. Evans Gospel Choir of Nicey Grove Baptist Church, "Amazing Grace" (on HandMeDown2)
Bill & Pauline Garland, Charlie Black & Marie Bennett, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3941 A1)
Mrs. Henry Garrett, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3175 A3)
Rev. J. M. Gates, "Amazing Grace" (Pathe Actuelle 7514/Perfect 114, 1926) (Victor 20216, 1926) (Herwin 92003, 1926; Gennett 6013/Champion 15199/Black Patti 8015/Silvertone 5021, 1927; Paramount 12782, 1929; all rec. 1926)
Rev. J. R. Gipson, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3981 A1)
Harmonizing Four, "Amazing Grace" (Gotham G779, rec. early 1950s)
Old Harp Singers of Eastern Tennessee, "Amazing Grace" (on OldHarp01)
Horace Helms & the Shady Grove Partners, "Amazing Grace" (on HandMeDown2)
Mahalia Jackson, "Amazing Grace" (Apollo 194, rec. 1947; on Babylon)
Aunt Molly Jackson, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 821 B2, 1935)
Buell Kazee, "Amazing Grace" [fragment] (on Kazee01)
Vera Kilgore, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 2939 B4)
Mrs. W. L. Martin, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 2748 B1/2)
Lucy McKeever, Annie Harvey, Melinda Jones, Mary Davis & Elsi Martin, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 917 B2)
Blind Willie McTell, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 4071 B3)
Gilbert Pike, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3189 B6)
Pilgrim Travelers, "Amazing Grace" (Specialty 847, n.d. but probably post-World War II)
Jean Ritchie, Doc Watson & Roger Sprung, "Amazing Grace" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
School group, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3109 B)
Pete Seeger, "Amazing Grace" (on PeteSeeger47)
Mary Shipp, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3005 A1)
Carl Smith w. Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle, "Amazing Grace" (Columbia 20986, 1952)
Students at Pine Mt. Settlement School, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 1383 B1)
Rev. H. R. Tomlin, "Amazing Grace" (OKeh 8378, 1926)
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Walker & Grover Bishop, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3104 A2)
Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, Clint Howard, Fred Price & Jean Ritchie, "Amazing Grace" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Wisdom Sisters, "Amazing Grace" (Columbia 15093-D, 1926)
Group of young and old people, "Amazing Grace" (on JThomas01)
SAME TUNE:
The Frenchman's Cow (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 59)
NOTES: As with many hymns, the threads [of this song's history] are a bit tangled. It's called "New Britain" in the "Original Sacred Harp" (1971 ed.), and this tune is the one commonly sung. No composer is listed for the tune, and a note states that the song was published in "Olney's Selections" as "Faith's Review and Expectation."
The lyrics also appear with a tune by R. F. Mann from 1869, under the title "Jewett," with the chorus "Shout, shout for glory/Shout, shout aloud for glory/Brother, sister, mourner/All shout glory hallelujah." - PJS
John Newton, according to Johnson, lost his mother at age seven and soon found himself serving his father on shipboard. Taken into the navy, he deserted, was recaptured, and finally ended up serving on a slaver. Then he read The Imitation of Christ, and gave up his career, eventually becoming an Anglican clergyman.
His major relic is the texts he contributed to Olney Hymns (Olney was the home of Newton and of William Cowper); there are nearly 300 of them, of which this one is by far the most popular. Other Newton sons in the Index are "Greenfields (How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours)" and "Glorious Thing of Thee are Spoken."
The tune "New Britain" apparently had a different third line in its original form, and was modified by Edwin Othello Excell. For the original form, see e.g. Marilyn Kay Stulken, Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship, Fortress Press, 1981, p. 476. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: LxU096

DESCRIPTION: "Far away in sunny meadows Where the merry sunbeams played... She was fairer than the fairest... And about her neck were hanging Amber tresses tied in blue." But "it was decreed that fate should part us"; now he sadly remembers her
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel M. Mitchell/Music: H.P. Danks
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (sheet music published by Cottier & Denton of New York)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 804, "Amber Tresses Tied in Blue" (1 text)
Roud #4230
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Amber Tresses" (Victor 23701, 1932; Bluebird B-5185, 1933; Zonophone [Australia] 4379, n.d.)
Isabel Etheridge & Mary Basnight, "Amber Tresses" (on OBanks1)
File: R804

DESCRIPTION: A sailor receives a letter, telling him that his child has been born. He reports that it's "home I want to be" (to see the child and learn its gender), and intends to take ship there at the first opportunity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: children family sailor separation home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hugill, p. 499, "Home, Dearie, Home" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the sailor's wife, rather than sending a letter, comes to him in a dream) [AbrEd, pp. 366]
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 144-145, "Home, Dearie, Home" (1 text plus a stanza of Henley's adaption and an alternate chorus, plus a text of "Bell-Bottom Trousers," 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 91, "Home, Boys, Home" (1 text)
DT 319, AMBLTOWN
ST LK43A (Full)
Roud #269
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "The Oak and the Ash" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(127), "Home, Dearie, Home," Poet's Box (Dundee), unknown (with this chorus, though the nearly-illegible text does not appear to match this song; it appears to be a rewrite of this piece)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43]
cf. "A North Country Maid"
SAME TUNE:
Home, Boys, Home (Niles/Moore, pp. 37-38, listed as being to the tune of "The Son of a Gambolier" but appearing to be a parody of this)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Home, Dearie, Home
Oak and the Ash, The
NOTES: For the complex relationship between this song, "A North Country Maid," and "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43], see the notes to the latter song. - RBW
I put [the Silber text] in with Ambletown rather than Rosemary Lane because the only narrative verses describe the sailor's longing to be "sitting in my parlor and talking to my dear" and thinking of the "pretty little babe that has never seen its daddy." No explicit seduction -- which places it in the Ambletown ambit, so to speak. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.3
File: LK43A

DESCRIPTION: A praise to the liberty and freedom offered in America. Throw in a brief description of the geography, a bit of praise for God, and a hint of ancestor worship, add the tune of "God Save the King," and you get America's other anthem
AUTHOR: Samuel Francis Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (first recorded performance, though Smith later thought he wrote it in 1832, when it was first published)
KEYWORDS: patriotic America nonballad religious derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 6-9, "America, My Country 'Tis of Thee" (1 text, 1 tune, from an 1861 edition)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 249-251, "God Save the King" (includes notes on "America")
Krythe 4, pp. 62-73, "America" (1 text, 1 tune)
DSB2, p. 53, "America" (1 text)
DT, AMERTIS*
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 46, lists early sheet music publications
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "God Save the King" (tune) and references there
SAME TUNE:
New National Anthem (Saffel-CowboyP, p. 221)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
National Hymn
NOTES: According to Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 69), S. F. Smith discovered the tune of "Heil Dir in Siegerkranz" in a book lent to him by Lowell Mason, and dashed off his words not knowing that "God Save the King" was to the same tune. Mason would direct the first public performance.
Smith, according to both Spaeth and Dicther/Shapiro, would later write, "If I had anticipated the future of it, doubtless I would have taken more pains with it." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: RJ19006

DESCRIPTION: In praise of America, productive and fertile "from sea to shining sea." God is begged to care for and improve the nation.
AUTHOR: Words: Katherine Lee Bates/Music: Samuel A. Ward
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 ("Congregationalist")
KEYWORDS: America patriotic religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Krythe 12, pp. 177-184, "America the Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 46, "America the Beautiful" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 96-97, "America the Beautiful"
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "America the Beautiful" (on PeteSeeger31)
Pete Seeger w. Robert DeCormier, "America the Beautiful" (on HootenannyTonight)
NOTES: An article in the October 2004 issue of American History magazine reveals a complex history for this song, with, in a sense, both the words and music coming first.
Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929) in 1893 was a professor of English heading for Colorado. She made several stops along the way: first at Niagara Falls, then at the World Columbian Exhibition in Chicago (where new shining-white buildings made her think of "alabaster cities"), then at Pikes Peak. She started on a rough draft of it then and there, and after polishing it a little, sent it to The Congregationist, which published the poem in its July 4, 1895 edition.
The result doesn't strike me as particularly good, even if you like the common version: "O beautiful for halcyon skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the enameled plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till souls wax fair as earth and air And music-hearted sea!"
Nonetheless, the poem was a hit, and reportedly inspired no fewer than 75 musical settings. But it wasn't until 1905 that Clarence A. Barbour managed to fit it to Samuel A. Ward's 1890 tune "Materna."
That process seemes to inspire Bates; she revised her poem once in 1904, and produced the final, quasi-canonical version in 1911.
The tune still took some time to settle down; as late as 1926, the Lutheran publication The Parish School Hymnal publishes it with William W. Sleeper's 1926 tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Kry012

DESCRIPTION: A ship from Limerick to St John's is disabled. Two men drown. The food is lost. The captain has those without wives cast lots. The lot falls to O'Brien; the cook is forced to cut his throat. They drink O'Brien's blood. The next day they are rescued.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(172a))
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue cannibalism starvation husband
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 18, 1835 - Patrick O'Brien is killed on Francis Spaight
Dec 23, 1835 - The crew is rescued by Agenora. (See Notes)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson, pp. 38-39, "The American Aginora" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7352
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(98), "Loss of the Ship Francis Spede, Dreadful Sufferings of the Crew ("You landsmen and you seamen bold "), J. Scott (Pittenweem), 19C; also Harding B 17(172a), "The Loss of the Francis Spaight"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Banks of Newfoundland" (II) (plot)
NOTES: The plot is that of "The Banks of Newfoundland" (II) with the rescue too late to save the lottery loser. Note that the Aginora is the rescue ship. As in "The Banks of Newfoundland," the ship planning/practicing human sacrifice is not named.
There are a number of references for the event:
Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v3, p. 123, is writing about songs and ballads, including Ranson, as sources for his information: "The story of the Francis Spaight on 22 November, ... year unknown before 1836, describes cannibalism of the cabin boy Patrick O'Brien and eventual rescue of fourteen of the eighteen survivors by Captain Tillard.."
Northern Shipwrecks Database has the date as November 1836, has "Francis Spaight" sailing from Saint John, New Brunswick, bound to Limerick, Ireland, and the rescuer as "Angeronia." The Bodleian broadsides have the rescue ship as "The Agonary of America."
Death of a Cabin Boy on the Askeaton Step Back in Time site: "Few Limerick people today will have heard of Patrick O'Brien. His name has not entered any of our major works of local history. There is not even a plaque or stone to his memory."
The story is told about O'Brien, about the disaster on December 3, and finally of the decision by the captain, Thomas Gorman, "that one of the crew should be killed to keep the rest alive." After O'Brien was killed "three other crew members were similarly put to death ... and they too were eaten by their ship mates.... The captain of the Francis Spaight was engaged in eating the liver and brains of his cabin boy when rescued. After their return to Limerick, the captain and crew were tried for murder and acquitted... rendered [by their ordeal] ... unable to labour ... during the rest of their lives."
The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild site has an expurgated text of Captain Gorman's letter to the ship's owner, naming the rescue ship as Agorona and its captain as Jillard. As to the storm, the site, quoting Limerick Times notes "On a reference to Lloyd's List we find that twenty vessels are reported as having foundered on the same night."
The Jack London Ranch Album site has the complete text of The "Francis Spaight" A True Tale Retold by Jack London, a short story from "When God Laughs and Other Stories" (Macmillan, 1911). London's story is closer to the ballad than to the reports.
The facts: the Francis Spaight sailed Nov 24 [,1835], was wrecked December 3, and the rescue ship was Agenoria from America. ["The Wreck of the Francis Spaight," The Times of London, Wednesday, Jun 22, 1836; pg. 7; Issue 16136; Start column: C. (Copyright 2002 The Gale Group)] - BS
File: Ran038

See The French Privateer (File: HHH560)

See The Dying British Sergeant (File: Wa010)

See Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away (The Rifles, The Merry King) (File: BuDa005)

See The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea [Laws O15] (File: LO15)

See When First Into this Country (File: SWMS195)

DESCRIPTION: "Hark, hark, hear that yell, tis the war whoop's dread sound." Indians attack and set a cottage on fire. Our Hero pursues, finds an Indian whose weapon was broken, kills him (?), attacks the Indian band, and rides away to the thanks of the community
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) revenge family fire
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering 93, "The American Volunteer" (1 text)
ST GC093 (Partial)
Roud #3696
NOTES: This looks very much like a defective memory of a historical broadside (though one suspects the original of magnifying both the Indians' villainy and the hero's bravery). But the text as it stands contains neither a single proper name (of a person or a place) nor a single date, making it quite untraceable. - RBW
File: GC093

DESCRIPTION: William is forced into the army by the parents of his sweetheart. In America he is murdered by Indians. His ghost appears to his sweetheart in Scotland, saying he will wander until she joins him. Within a week she too is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) army ghost death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws M36, "American Woods"
Creighton-NovaScotia 99, "American Woods" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 588, AMERWOOD
Roud #1809
File: LM36

See Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away (The Rifles, The Merry King) (File: BuDa005)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. On entering seminary, singer is asked if he has a girlfriend. Lying, he denies it. As a priest, he still thinks about her, even when saying Mass.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love lie clergy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 8, "Amhrain An Tsagairt" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin-Cronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC008

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Martin, a fuller from Bandon, owned a ship. The women "went wild all around him" but Molly and her mother kept after him until "they had poor Martin hooked." Now "he has his troubles; two women at his fireside and a cot in the corner"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting humorous mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn, pp. 58-59, "Amhrainin Siodraimin" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OCanainn: "The chorus [and title] is well nigh untranslatable ... just providing syllables for each beat of the jig rhythm.
The description is based on the OCanainn translation.
"Fulling ... produces a warm, resistant cloth, quality notwithstanding.... [F]ullers join the ranks of the wealthy artisans and guilds in the fourteenth century, by which time it can only signify someone responsible for, or with a controlling interest in, the mill itself." (source: Michael Gervers, The textile industry in Essex in the late 12th and 13th centuries: A study based on occupational names in charter sources , University of Toronto site).
Bandon is up the Bandon River from Cork.- BS
File: OCan058

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A gander wanders onto a neighbor's land. "The neighbor set his dog on it and the dog killed the gander." The singer curses the dog.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage death humorous bird dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 7, "Amhran An Ghanndail" (1 text)
NOTES: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin-Cronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC007

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer goes to the market, buys a calf, and ties it up to join the dancing and drinking. Afterwards he searches for but can't find the calf. To console himself for the loss he stops to drink at a pub.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage farming money dancing drink animal theft
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 9, "Amhran Pheaidi Bhig" (1 text)
NOTES: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin-Cronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC009

DESCRIPTION: "Tipperary to give you your merit Your meeting exceeded them all." At noon on October 24 the towns and trades march through the streets supporting amnesty for the Fenian exiles. Fathers Barry and O'Connell and a young man on a charger lead the legions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as100270)
KEYWORDS: exile Ireland political clergy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann, p. 70, "A New Song on the Amnesty Meeting in Tipperary" (1 fragment)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(50), "A New Song On The Amesty[sic] Meeting in Tipperary," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
LOCSinging, as100270, "A New Song On The Amesty[sic] Meeting in Tipperary," P. Brereton (Dublin), 19C
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 70 is a fragment; broadside LOCSinging as100270 is the basis for the description.
Broadsides LOCSinging as100270 and Bodleian 2806 b.9(50) are duplicates.
The broadside does not say what year this is. The Bodleian assignment of c.1867 is their standby for Brereton broadsides no matter how the internal evidence stacks up. It is probably a Sunday. It is certainly after 1867 since it cites the deaths of Allen, O'Brien and Larkin (see references for "The Smashing of the Van (I)"). P. Brereton was apparently a Dublin printer in the 1860s and 1870s (the address for this broadside is 1 Lower Exchange Street). The only Sunday, October 24ths in that period are in 1869 and 1875.
While 1869 is likely -- this is only two weeks after the amnesty meeting in Dublin (see references for "The Glorious Meeting of Dublin") and three weeks after earlier activity for amnesty in Youghal -- the emphasis and leaders seem different. Earlier in October 1869 the emphasis was for amnesty for the Fenian prisoners eventually exiled in 1871; here the amnesty requested is that unnamed exiles -- and there are exiles from long before 1869 (see, for example, references for "By the Hush") -- be allowed to return.
Fathers Barry and O'Connor seem local to the Galtees mountains, Glen of Aherlow, and southern Tipperary towns. The amnesty movement leaders are not named; on the other hand, the array of trades and towns repeats the Dublin 1869 approach. Unless someone can find a reference I would list the date on this as "uncertain." - BS
File: BrdAmnTi

See Willie's Lyke-Wake [Child 25] (File: C025)

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks if there is anyone who does not thrill with memories of a childhood home. He declares, "Darling Tyrone, I will love you till death." He describes how he dreams of the old boreen. Even if he never returns, he will always think of Tyrone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H708, p. 178, "Among the Green Bushes [in Sweet Tyrone]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13534
File: HHH708

See Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor) (File: HHH177)

DESCRIPTION: "(Gynna) is her first name, first name, first name, (Glynna) is her first name, Among the little white daisies." Ritchie version gives the first and second names of husband and wife, then tells of their marriage, children, and perhaps death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting death
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritchie-Southern, p. 34, "Among the Little White Daisies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell, #173, "Under the Lily-white Daisies" (1 text)
Roud #7401
File: RitS034

See A-Rovin' (File: EM064)

See A-Rovin' (File: EM064)

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. When Spain and France come the English will be defeated and we won't have to listen to the "Croppy Lie Down." Bonaparte has promised to drive out the enemy; then the women can sing the "Croppy Lie Down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Toibin's _Duanaire Deiseach_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rebellion Ireland patriotic Napoleon
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 78, "An 'Croppy Lie Down'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The description is from the summary in the Moylan's notes.
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Eamon O Broithe, "An 'Croppy Lie Down'" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes) - BS
File: Moyl078

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls her husband's proposal: "an aul' man's dawtie ye will be, For twenty years I'm aulder." He has been "a faithfu' frien' and husband kin'" and it would break her heart to lose his love.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: age love marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1276, "An Aul' Man's Dawtie" (1 text)
Roud #7191
File: GrD71276

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. At an Irish-speakers meeting many complain about English language infiltration in local use. One speaker denies that any English is spoken in his area.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 10, "An Bearla Brea" (1 text)
NOTES: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin-Cronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC010

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A satirical song, mocking Coley and his new britches."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage clothes humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 11, "An Bhfeaca Sibh Coil" (1 text)
NOTES: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin-Cronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC011

DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: Singer, going to the water-meadow, meets a girl who has cut rushes. He bids her join him in the forest. She reproaches him; he'd promised a home and fine clothing, "all in payment for the bench of roses and the trouble I had over it"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(393))
KEYWORDS: courting sex promise betrayal foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan 64, "The Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 22, "Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ST RcABLtlb (Full)
Roud #3380
RECORDINGS:
Philip McDermott, "The Reaping of the Rushes Green" (on Voice18, IRHardySons)
Maire O'Sullivan, "An Binnsin Luchra (The Little Bench [or Bunch] of Rushes)" [fragment] (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(393), "Rushes Green," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(3369), 2806 c.17(371), "Rushes Green"
NOTES: Fowke/MacMillan notes to 64: "This is an English version of the widely known Irish Gaelic song ... In JFSS III 17 Lucy Broadwood gives a version from Waterford, Ireland, with alternate English and Gaelic stanzas." Fowke/MacMillan includes the "Arabian Queen" reference that ties it to Creighton-SNewBrunswick.
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(393), which is in English, is -- like Fowke/MacMillan -- just about seduction; it refers to "any queen" rather than "Arabian queen" and shares the reference to hunting dogs and singing birds with Fowke/MacMillan. -BS
File: RcABLtlb

DESCRIPTION: Macaronic. The singer, out with gun and dogs, meets a fair maid gathering rushes. He asks for an embrace but she asks that she and her rushes be left alone. He persists but she thinks him "a schemer." He notes how handsome rushes grow "in their prime"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin-Cronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage seduction sex bawdy rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin-Cronin 12, "An Binsin Luachra" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "An Binsin Luachra" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES: The description follows the English verses of the macaronic OCroinin-Cronin text. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC012